Evolutionary psychologists are absolutely and uniformly cynical about the real reason why humans are universally wired with a chunk of complex purposeful functional circuitry X (e.g. an emotion) - we have X because it increased inclusive genetic fitness in the ancestral environment, full stop.
One big problem is that they tend to systematically ignore memes.
Human brains are parasitised by replicators that hijack them for their own ends. The behaviour of a catholic priest has relatively little to do with the inclusive genetic fitness of the priest—and a lot to do with the inclusive genetic fitness of the Catholicism meme. Pinker and many of the other evo-psych guys still show little sign of “getting” this.
Actually, no. The priest’s siblings and the decendants of those siblings got a boost from being related to a priest. The same is true of families with a daughter who became a nun.
Also, the relatives who now find themselves with a member of a church in their immediate circle will feel a much higher pressure to have a lot of kids, as per the catholic doctrine.
One big problem is that they tend to systematically ignore memes.
Human brains are parasitised by replicators that hijack them for their own ends. The behaviour of a catholic priest has relatively little to do with the inclusive genetic fitness of the priest—and a lot to do with the inclusive genetic fitness of the Catholicism meme. Pinker and many of the other evo-psych guys still show little sign of “getting” this.
Actually, no. The priest’s siblings and the decendants of those siblings got a boost from being related to a priest. The same is true of families with a daughter who became a nun.
Also, the relatives who now find themselves with a member of a church in their immediate circle will feel a much higher pressure to have a lot of kids, as per the catholic doctrine.
It really is about inclusive fitness.
No it ain’t. Catholicism wasn’t universal in EEA.