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The ultrasocial origin of the Anthropocene

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  • Gowdy, John
  • Krall, Lisi

Abstract

The current geological epoch has been dubbed the Anthropocene—the age of humans. We argue that the roots of the Anthropocene lie in the agricultural revolution that began some 8000years ago. Unique human psychological and cultural characteristics were present in our distant hunter–gatherer past, but in terms of the biophysical impact of our species, agricultural represented an unequivocal and decisive evolutionary break. With the transition to agriculture human society began to function as a superorganism functioning as a single unit designed by social natural selection to produce economic surplus. Where environmental conditions were permitted, early human agricultural societies followed the same pattern as a few social insects and exhibited explosive population growth, complex and detailed division of labor, intensive resource exploitation, territorial expansion, and a social organization favoring the survival and growth of the supergroup over the well-being of individuals within the group. Similar economic forces lie behind ultrasociality in social insects and humans—increased productivity from the division of labor, increasing returns to scale, and the exploitation of stocks of productive resources. Exploring the evolutionary mechanisms behind ultrasociality offers insights into the growth imperative that threatens the stability of the earth's life support systems.

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  • Gowdy, John & Krall, Lisi, 2013. "The ultrasocial origin of the Anthropocene," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 137-147.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:95:y:2013:i:c:p:137-147
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.08.006
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    2. Kaitlin Kish & Joshua Farley, 2021. "A Research Agenda for the Future of Ecological Economics by Emerging Scholars," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-17, February.
    3. Serge Svizzero, 2016. "Foraging Wild Resources: Evolving Goals of an Ubiquitous Human Behavior," Post-Print hal-02147756, HAL.
    4. Fix, Blair, 2020. "Economic Development and the Death of the Free Market," SocArXiv g86am, Center for Open Science.
    5. David Wilson & John Gowdy, 2015. "Human ultrasociality and the invisible hand: foundational developments in evolutionary science alter a foundational concept in economics," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 37-52, April.
    6. Timothy J. Garrett, 2016. "Long-run evolution of the global economy - Part 2: Hindcasts of innovation and growth," Papers 1601.00233, arXiv.org.
    7. C. Tyler DesRoches, 2018. "What Is Natural about Natural Capital during the Anthropocene?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-10, March.
    8. Blair Fix, 2022. "Economic development and the death of the free market," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 1-46, April.
    9. Marcello Tonelli & Nicolò Cristoni, 2015. "Can GRI Light Up the Future of Mankind?," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 2503903, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    10. Timothy J Garrett & Matheus Grasselli & Stephen Keen, 2020. "Past world economic production constrains current energy demands: Persistent scaling with implications for economic growth and climate change mitigation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-19, August.
    11. Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten, 2015. "Energy, growth, and evolution: Towards a naturalistic ontology of economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 432-442.
    12. Clement Allan Tisdell & Serge Svizzero, 2017. "Optimization Theories of the Transition from Foraging to Agriculture: A Critical Assessment and Proposed Alternatives," Post-Print hal-02145490, HAL.
    13. Røpke, Inge, 2020. "Econ 101—In need of a sustainability transition," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    14. Hagens, N.J., 2020. "Economics for the future – Beyond the superorganism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    15. Serge Svizzero & Clement A. Tisdell & Duncan Watson, 2016. "Economic evolution, diversity of societies and stages of economic development: A critique of theories applied to hunters and gatherers and their successors," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1161322-116, December.
    16. Tisdell, Clem & Svizzero, Serge, 2016. "Different Behavioral Explanations of the Neolithic Transition from Foraging to Agriculture: A Review," Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Papers 229769, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    17. Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten, 2018. "The Case for a New Discipline: Technosphere Science," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 212-225.
    18. Lennox, Erin & Gowdy, John, 2014. "Ecosystem governance in a highland village in Peru: Facing the challenges of globalization and climate change," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 155-163.
    19. Joe Ament, 2019. "Toward an Ecological Monetary Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, February.
    20. Liu, Jieling & Gatzweiler, Franz W. & Kumar, Manasi, 2021. "An evolutionary complex systems perspective on urban health," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    21. Toni Ruuska & Pasi Heikkurinen & Kristoffer Wilén, 2020. "Domination, Power, Supremacy: Confronting Anthropolitics with Ecological Realism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-20, March.
    22. Serge Svizzero & Clement Allan Tisdell, 2016. "Economic evolution, diversity of societies and stages of economic development: A critique of theories applied to hunters and gatherers and their successors," Post-Print hal-02147753, HAL.
    23. Stefan Gehrig & Achim Schlüter & Peter Hammerstein, 2019. "Sociocultural heterogeneity in a common pool resource dilemma," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, January.
    24. Fabio Boschetti & Elizabeth A. Fulton & Nicola J. Grigg, 2014. "Citizens’ Views of Australia’s Future to 2050," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-26, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Anthropocene; Downward causation; Evolution; Group selection; Inclusive fitness; Increasing returns to scale; Inequality; Multi-level selection; Sociobiology; Stocks and flows; Sustainability policy; Ultrasociality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;
    • N5 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries
    • Q1 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics

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