Overview

Evolutionary change is usually incremental and continuous, but some increases in organizational complexity have been radical and divisive. Evolutionary biologists, who refer to such events as “major transitions”, have not always appreciated that these advances were novel forms of pairwise commitment that subjugated previously independent agents. Inclusive fitness theory convincingly explains cooperation and conflict in societies of animals and free-living cells, but to deserve its eminent status it should also capture how major transitions originated: from prokaryote cells to eukaryote cells, via differentiated multicellularity, to colonies with specialized queen and worker castes. As yet, no attempt has been made to apply inclusive fitness principles to the origins of these events. Domains and Major Transitions of Social Evolution develops the idea that major evolutionary transitions involved new levels of informational closure that moved beyond looser partnerships. Early neo-Darwinians understood this principle, but later social gradient thinking obscured the discontinuity of life's fundamental organizational transitions. The author argues that the major transitions required maximal kinship in simple ancestors - not conflict reduction in already elaborate societies. Reviewing more than a century of literature, he makes testable predictions, proposing that open societies and closed organisms require very different inclusive fitness explanations. It appears that only human ancestors lived in societies that were already complex before our major cultural transition occurred. We should therefore not impose the trajectory of our own social history on the rest of nature. This thought-provoking text is suitable for graduate-level students taking courses in evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, organismal developmental biology, and evolutionary genetics, as well as professional researchers in these fields. It will also appeal to a broader, interdisciplinary audience, including the social sciences and humanities.

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9780198746171

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Reviews

This book is valuable for anyone interested in the history of evolutionary thought and theory. It is a must have for anyone for whom kin selection and inclusive fitness maximization is their scientific guiding lodestar. It is also a must have for those for whom kin selection and inclusive fitness maximization is the bane of their existence - to see the best case the other side can muster. Domains and Major Transitions of Social Evolution is a book for the serious evolutionary biologist seeking an intellectual challenge. I found it both enlightening and worthwhile, if not entirely persuasive. * Peter Nonacs, ISBE Newsletter 2023 *

This book is valuable for anyone interested in the history of evolutionary thought and theory. It is a must have for anyone for whom kin selection and inclusive fitness maximization is their scientific guiding lodestar. It is also a must have for those for whom kin selection and inclusive fitness maximization is the bane of their existence - to see the best case the other side can muster. Domains and Major Transitions of Social Evolution is a book for the serious evolutionary biologist seeking an intellectual challenge. I found it both enlightening and worthwhile, if not entirely persuasive. * Peter Nonacs, ISBE Newsletter 2023 * This well-researched book makes an enjoyable read. It is thought-provoking while avoiding too many technicalities, and as such also well suited for graduate teaching. Obviously, any scholar interested in social evolution will want to read this volume. It will also appeal to evolutionary biologists who would like to see a condensed treatment of the development of evolutionary thought, and to anyone who ever wondered what makes social insects so special yet, at the same time, similar to cells. * Ulrich R. Ernst, Trends in Ecology & Evolution * Boomsma's volume is an excellent example of how biologists can learn from taking the gene's eye view. * Tobias Uller, The Quarterly Review of Biology * Anyone interested in social evolution or the major transitions will find much of interest. The empirical overviews alone could launch numerous social evolution PhDs...It provides a comprehensive and historical review of the development of evolutionary theory, as well as an insightful discussion of progress and complexity in evolution. These topics would be of use to a wide range of readers from scientists to philosophers. * Stuart West, Nature Ecology & Evolution *

This book is valuable for anyone interested in the history of evolutionary thought and theory. It is a must have for anyone for whom kin selection and inclusive fitness maximization is their scientific guiding lodestar. It is also a must have for those for whom kin selection and inclusive fitness maximization is the bane of their existence - to see the best case the other side can muster. Domains and Major Transitions of Social Evolution is a book for the serious evolutionary biologist seeking an intellectual challenge. I found it both enlightening and worthwhile, if not entirely persuasive. * Peter Nonacs, ISBE Newsletter 2023 *

Author Information

Jacobus J. Boomsma is Professor at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Biology, where he is the Director of the Centre for Social Evolution. He is an Elected Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (1998) and was awarded a Knighthood from the Royal Danish Order of Dannebrog (2015). He received the Quadrennial Hamilton Award for outstanding lifetime achievement by the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (2018). His principle research interests include Social Evolution, Conflict/Cooperation, Mating systems, Coevolution, Conservation, Genomics, and Evolutionary Medicine.

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