Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - Sociable rule-adaptiveness in the evolution of human sociality: peripheral and prototypical group memberships
AU  - Trnka R
Y1  - 2011
VL  - 49
IS  - 2
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 165
EP  - 169
KW  - Human evolution
KW  - Social structure
KW  - Self-willed attitudes
KW  - Human sociality
KW  - Social network
N2  - 
N2  - The evolution of social structures has influenced the way in which individuals relate to the core or the periphery of given social networks. The present theoretical outline discusses differences in the use of various evolutionary strategies from the perspective of different positions within the social structures of humans. Two groups of strategies were discussed, the strategies of balancing between inclusiveness and distinctiveness and dispositional strategies for stress management. Chronic stress levels in group members seems to be one of natural consequences of the cooperative, gregarious living of a social species. The use of strategies is discussed from the perspective of individuals in peripheral and prototypical positions. Prototypical group members are suggested to use strategies that utilise the main social network. Dispositional coping activity of prototypical group members can be characterised by the direction "towards", i.e. towards social structure, towards family, towards peers. In contrast, peripheral group members are more prone to use strategies based on creative cognitive processes and their self-oriented coping can be characterised by the direction "inwards", or even by the direction "against", because of their thing-oriented individualistic behaviour motivated by self-willed attitudes. The direction of stress management activities represents a new, interesting variable for future discussions about the evolution of social structure and the evolutionary differentiation of individuals´ positions within a social structure.
ER  -