Abstract:

Genocide considered as the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic or religious group has been explained by cultural, cognitive or economic factors. Evolutionary explanations rely on the emergence of in-group preferences and out-group hostility driven by parochial altruism and genetic and/or cultural selection at the group level. Although these theories can account for inter-group aggression they leave unexplained the cases where genocide is directed against members of the same group and cannot explain why a particular sub-group is re-labelled as an out-group and chosen as target for genocide. I develop an evolutionary model linking motives for genocide with the egalitarianism observed in many groups of hunter-gatherers, so that both might have evolved for the same reason. Genocide is attempted to eradicate fitness-enhancing genetic or cultural mutations in the population that are perceived as not sharing the beneficial mutation with the rest of the group either by intermarriage (endogamy) and/or by sharing resources (egalitarianism). Attempts to genocidal behavior offers a chance to avoid the risk of future extinction of linages due to their relative disadvantage in adaptive fitness. An agent-based simulation of the model allows to determine the conditions under which the “genocidal gene” might evolve.

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Twitter: @genocidalgene