39 | Did Humans Evolve In Small Groups? ~ Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

16-04-2024 • 48 mins

Modern cities are unique. Never before have so many people lived so close to each other. But just how unique is our modern cosmopolitanism?

Completely unique, says a traditional theory.

Humans evolved in groups. These groups were not only smaller than modern cities. They were smaller than medieval towns. Indeed, hunter-gatherers often move in bands of 25 people or so. These bands might draw people from a "meta-group" of 150 people — but not more. And so, 150 people is the natural group size for humans. Or so the theory goes.

My guest today thinks that this is wrong.

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias is an evolutionary ecologist who studies hunter-gatherer societies. And her work points to a very different conclusion. Yes, hunter-gatherers spend much of their time in small bands. But these bands can form much larger groups of connections, extending further and further away, even to areas with different languages. Even in the rainforest, cosmopolitanism is the norm.

So what do hunter-gatherer societies look like? And are they really good models of our deep past? We discuss these and other topics in this episode, touching upon topics such as:

(04:00) Living with hunter-gatherers

(10:30) Fluid societies

(14:20) Dunbar’s mistake

(17:20) Dawkins’s mistake

(21:20) ANcient DNA of hunter-gatherers

(23:20) What made Sapiens special?

(25:40) Mobility, diversity, and technology

(28:20) Sympathy and xenophobia

(34:00) Ancient DNA (again)

(41:30) Jungle cosmopolitanism

(43:40) Was agriculture a mistake?

As always, we end with my guest's reflections on humanity.