Citystates in Greece had to deal with politics that certainly could mean life or death. When the Peloponnesian war broke out, states had to take sides, or risk being hated by both sides, and at risk for invasion and conquering. Rome around the time of Julius Caesar was turbulent, and where supporting the wrong Tribune could mean being put on a wanted list and killed by a bounty hunter when they came to power. In Germany, choosing the wrong side at the wrong time could certainly result in execution for heresay or treason. There are many examples throughout history where competing political views transferred into violence and killing, if not outright war.
Those don’t fit my understanding of the “ancestral environment”—I associate that with the tribes-of-cavemen era. By my understanding, Greek city-states are within our FOOM period. Am I mistaken?
No, you’re completely right—omeganaut is confused about what constitutes the “ancestral environment” here. For most examples of “ancient” or “primitive” peoples that come to mind, there’s a simple test: if they performed agriculture, horticulture or pastoralism as a primary way of life within the last 10,000 years, they’re within in our FOOM period, and even if they didn’t start out with it, the odds are extremely good that contact, cultural diffusion or conquest have moved them into orbit around the same basic attractor.
We have been exposed to radically different selection pressures after the advent of agriculture than we where prior to it. Change has thus probably been rather rapid in the past 10 000 years.
Citystates in Greece had to deal with politics that certainly could mean life or death. When the Peloponnesian war broke out, states had to take sides, or risk being hated by both sides, and at risk for invasion and conquering. Rome around the time of Julius Caesar was turbulent, and where supporting the wrong Tribune could mean being put on a wanted list and killed by a bounty hunter when they came to power. In Germany, choosing the wrong side at the wrong time could certainly result in execution for heresay or treason. There are many examples throughout history where competing political views transferred into violence and killing, if not outright war.
Those don’t fit my understanding of the “ancestral environment”—I associate that with the tribes-of-cavemen era. By my understanding, Greek city-states are within our FOOM period. Am I mistaken?
No, you’re completely right—omeganaut is confused about what constitutes the “ancestral environment” here. For most examples of “ancient” or “primitive” peoples that come to mind, there’s a simple test: if they performed agriculture, horticulture or pastoralism as a primary way of life within the last 10,000 years, they’re within in our FOOM period, and even if they didn’t start out with it, the odds are extremely good that contact, cultural diffusion or conquest have moved them into orbit around the same basic attractor.
We have been exposed to radically different selection pressures after the advent of agriculture than we where prior to it. Change has thus probably been rather rapid in the past 10 000 years.