Life history evolution and sociology : the biological backstory of coming apart: the state of White America, 1960-2010

This book supplies the evolutionary and genetic framework that Charles Murray, towards the end of __Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010__, predicts will one day explain revolutionary change in American society. Murray’s __Coming Apart__ documents 50 years of changed college admissions, government incentives, mating and migration patterns that have wrought national divisions across indexes of marriage, industriousness, honesty, and religiosity. The framework discussed is life history evolution, a sub-discipline within evolutionary biology singly capable of explaining why violent crime, property crime, low marriage rates, father absence, early birth, low educational achievement, low income, poverty, lack of religiosity and reduced achievement striving will reliably co-occur as part of a complex. This complex augments facultatively, developmentally and evolutionarily in response to unpredictable and uncontrollable sources of mortality. The uncertain tenure of life wrought by unpredictable and uncontrollable mortality selects for a present-oriented use of bioenergetics resources recognizable as the social ills of Fishtown, Murray’s archetypal working class community. In turn, the thirty years of life history literature herein reviewed confirms the biological logic of elite intermarriage and sequestration. The source of life history variation, policy implications, and demography are discussed. This book supplies the evolutionary and genetic framework that Charles Murray, towards the end of Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010, predicts will one day explain revolutionary change in American society. Murray's Coming Apart documents 50 years of changed college admissions, government incentives, mating and migration patterns that have wrought national divisions across indexes of marriage, industriousness, honesty, and religiosity. The framework discussed is life history evolution, a sub-discipline within evolutionary biology singly capable of explaining why violent crime, property crime, low marriage rates, father absence, early birth, low educational achievement, low income, poverty, lack of religiosity and reduced achievement striving will reliably co-occur as part of a complex. This complex augments facultatively, developmentally and evolutionarily in response to unpredictable and uncontrollable sources of mortality. The uncertain tenure of life wrought by unpredictable and uncontrollable mortality selects for a present-oriented use of bioenergetics resources recognizable as the social ills of Fishtown, Murray's archetypal working class community. In turn, the thirty years of life history literature herein reviewed confirms the biological logic of elite intermarriage and sequestration. The source of life history variation, policy implications, and demography are discussed. Steven C. Hertler is Adjunct-Assistant Professor of Psychology for the College of New Rochelle, USA. Focusing on personality, evolutionary ecology, comparative psychology, and theoretical sociobiology, he has served as the sole or principal author for 14 peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as contributing to several Sage reference guides, and serving as a senior editor for Europe's Journal of Psychology Annotation This book supplies the evolutionary and genetic framework that Charles Murray, towards the end of Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010, predicts will one day explain revolutionary change in American society. Murray's Coming Apart documents 50 years of changed college admissions, government incentives, mating and migration patterns that have wrought national divisions across indexes of marriage, industriousness, honesty, and religiosity. The framework discussed is life history evolution, a sub-discipline within evolutionary biology singly capable of explaining why violent crime, property crime, low marriage rates, father absence, early birth, low educational achievement, low income, poverty, lack of religiosity and reduced achievement striving will reliably co-occur as part of a complex. This complex augments facultatively, developmentally and evolutionarily in response to unpredictable and uncontrollable sources of mortality. The uncertain tenure of life wrought by unpredictable and uncontrollable mortality selects for a present-oriented use of bioenergetics resources recognizable as the social ills of Fishtown, Murray's archetypal working class community. In turn, the thirty years of life history literature herein reviewed confirms the biological logic of elite intermarriage and sequestration. The source of life history variation, policy implications, and demography are discussed This book supplies the evolutionary and genetic framework that Charles Murray, towards the end of Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010, predicts will one day explain revolutionary change in American society. Murray documents 50 years of changed college admissions, government incentives, mating and migration patterns that have wrought national divisions across indexes of marriage, industriousness, honesty, and religiosity. The framework discussed is life history evolution, a sub-discipline within evolutionary biology singly capable of explaining why violent crime, property crime, low marriage rates, father absence, early birth, low educational achievement, low income, poverty, lack of religiosity and reduced achievement striving will reliably co-occur as part of a complex. This complex augments facultatively, developmentally and evolutionarily in response to unpredictable and uncontrollable sources of mortality. The uncertain tenure of life wrought by unpredictable and uncontrollable mortality selects for a present-oriented use of bioenergetics resources recognizable as the social ills of Fishtown, Murray's archetypal working class community. In turn, the thirty years of life history literature herein reviewed confirms the biological logic of elite intermarriage and sequestration. The source of life history variation, policy implications, and demography are discussed. --Publisher Life History Evolution and Sociology 3 Preface 6 Contents 7 1 A Fault Line Fifty Years in the Making 9 Notes 12 2 The Biology of Bifurcation 13 Notes 15 3 Life History Evolution: An Explanatory Framework 17 Notes 19 4 Aggregating the Biological, Psychological, and Sociological 20 4.1 Community and Religiosity 22 4.2 Industry and Honesty 25 4.3 Marriage and Parental Investment 28 4.4 Life History as a Correlated Complex 30 Notes 31 5 Questions of Etiology, Change, Policy, Mating, and Migration 33 5.1 What Drives Life History Variation? 33 5.2 How Do Life Histories Change in Persons and Populations? 37 5.3 How Might a Life History Framework Broadly Inform Policy? 40 5.4 What Is the Rationale for Homogamous Mating? 43 5.5 What Are the Implications of Elite Migration and Isolation? 45 Notes 47 6 The Biology of Sociology: Pitting Ideology Against Elegance 53 Notes 57 References 59 Index 77 Front Matter....Pages i-x A Fault Line Fifty Years in the Making....Pages 1-4 The Biology of Bifurcation....Pages 5-8 Life History Evolution: An Explanatory Framework....Pages 9-11 Aggregating the Biological, Psychological, and Sociological....Pages 13-25 Questions of Etiology, Change, Policy, Mating, and Migration....Pages 27-46 The Biology of Sociology: Pitting Ideology Against Elegance....Pages 47-52 Back Matter....Pages 53-73 Steven C. Hertler. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 53-70) And Index