Different selection pressures give rise to distinct ethnic phenomena : a functionalist framework with illustrations from the Peruvian Altiplano.

ABSTRACT: Many accounts of ethnic phenomena imply that processes such as stereotyping, essentialism, ethnocentrism, and intergroup hostility stem from a unitary adaptation for reasoning about groups. This is partly justified by the phenomena's co-occurrence in correlational studies. Here we argue that these behaviors are better modeled as functionally independent adaptations that arose in response to different selection pressures throughout human evolution. As such, different mechanisms may be triggered by different group boundaries within a single society. We illustrate this functionalist framework using ethnographic work from the Quechua-Aymara language boundary in the Peruvian Altiplano. We show that different group boundaries motivate different ethnic phenomena. For example, people have strong s

SUBMITTER: Moya C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4400236 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature