Burt Voorhees (Athabasca University)
Abstract. Extensive cooperation, going well beyond behavior that simply provides biological or socio-economic reward, is unique to humans. We are called “supercooperators,” the “cooperative species.” Most theoretical work on the evolution of cooperation treats it as a biological phenomenon. Empirically, however, humans are more cooperative than current theoretical explanatory mechanisms would suggest. In our view, the interacting social, cultural, and psychological aspects of cooperation are not adequately taken into account. We propose a new theory of the evolution of cooperation in human populations. We argue that this evolution builds from (1) the evolution of the capacity for self-sustained, self-referential thought manifesting as an integrated worldview, a sense of identity, and a point of view, (2) the evolution of cultural idea systems, including kinship systems, within which social identities are taken on and expressed, and (3) the evolution of cultural rules and standards for what constitutes proper behavior for a societal member. Individuals have a biological identity by virtue of being a sentient organism, and a social identity by virtue of being an encultured social being. This yields a choice: a person may act following their biological identity, which tends to cooperate only with close biological kin, or by following their social identity which often required cooperation with unrelated others. Within the field established by this polarity, cultural rules and standards for proper behavior, group boundaries, rules of behavior, beliefs, social norms, and other practices are formulated and integrated. In this view, humans cooperate collectively through each acting in accord with a cultural understanding of “who I am and what behavioral obligations that imposes on me.”