DS Wilson on Evolutionary Psychology and the media

David Sloan Wilson has a pretty interesting piece in the HuffPo about evolutionary psychology and its portrayal in the media. Wilson argues, among other things, that the study of human behavior from an evolutionary perspective is flourishing and rigorous, but that it is significantly more diverse than sometimes thought. Specifically, he says the term evolutionary psychology has become overly identified with the Tooby & Cosmides school of thought (the “Santa Barbara school”) which Wilson thinks is flawed in several respects. The meat:

How did the blueprint offered by Cosmides and Tooby go wrong? Let me count the ways: 1) They portrayed the mind as a collection of hundreds of special-purpose modules that evolved to solve specific problems in the EEA. 2) Their conception of the EEA was limited to the range of environments occupied by humans during their evolution as a species, which they acknowledged to be diverse. However, it did not stretch back in time to include primate, mammalian and vertebrate adaptations; nor did it stretch forward to include rapid genetic evolution since our hunter-gatherer existence. 3) They emphasized a universal human nature, or rather separate male and female natures, while minimizing the importance of adaptive genetic variation that cuts across both sexes. 4) They dismissed open-ended, domain-general psychological processes as a theoretical impossibility, creating a polarized worldview with "Evolutionary Psychology" at the positive end and "The Standard Social Science Model (SSSM)" at the negative end; 5) Their blueprint had almost nothing to say about culture as an open-ended evolutionary process that can adapt human populations to their current environments. They did not deny the possibility of transmitted culture, but they had almost nothing to say about it. Their most important point was that what seems like transmitted culture can instead be an expression of genetically programmed individual behavioral flexibility (evoked culture).

Ending on a more optimistic note:

Evolution is here to stay as a theory that can help us understand the human condition, along with the rest of the living world. With understanding comes the capacity for improvement. This is not just an idle intellectual pursuit but has consequences for the solution of real-world problems, so the sooner we can advance our understanding the better. One reason that we are just starting is because the term "evolution" became stigmatized early in the 20th century, in the same way that terms such as "sociobiology" and "evolutionary psychology" tend to become stigmatized today. This problem can be avoided by distinguishing particular schools of thought from the more general theory, so that the former can be accepted or rejected on their own merits without questioning the merits of the latter.

Fun with skeptical songs

The most excellent Daniel Loxton (author of the important manifesto "Where do we go from here?" [pdf]) has put together a fun list of freely-available skeptical songs. There are some pretty cool songs, I especially recommend "Carbon Cycle" [mp3] by Hard ’n Phirm and "Cosmic Carl" [mp3] by Dr. SETI...

African science blogrolling for June

It's been a long time since I've updated the African science and skepticism blogroll, but here it is. (Thanks to James for the hard yards on this one).

• 01 and the universe
• Acinonyx Scepticus
• Amanuensis Normality
• Bullshit Fatigue **new**
  
• Botswana Skeptic
  
• Effortless Incitement
• Ewan’s Corner
• Ionian Enchantment
• Irreverence
• Limbic Nutrition
  
• Orion Spur
  
• Other Things Amanzi
• Pause and Consider
• Pickled Bushman
• Prometheus Unbound
• Psychohistorian
• Scorched
• Shadows Hide **new**
• Stop Danie Krügel
  
• Subtle Shift in Emphasis
• The Little Book of Capoeira
• The Science Of Sport
• The Skeptic Black Sheep
• The Skeptic Detective
• Timbuktu Chronicles
  
• Yet Another Sceptic’s Blog

New Scientist on AIDS denialism

New Scientist magazine has a pair of fantastic articles on AIDS denialism: "AIDS denial: a lethal delusion" (by Jonny Steinberg, author of Three Letter Plague) and "Five Myths about HIV and AIDS". Though entirely fringe in the medical literature, AIDS denialism continues to claim lives, so public education -- especially in southern Africa, the epicentre of the pandemic -- is extremely important.

See also: Nicolli Nattrass' fantastic Skeptical Inquirer piece (which I linked to before).

An open letter to the MCC

The Treatment Action Campaign (an AIDS activist NGO) recently published an important open letter by physicians and academics to the Medical Control Council (South Africa's equivalent of America's FDA) about its failure to adequately regulate quack remedies.

The summary:
"*The Complementary Medicines 2002 call up has resulted in an untenable regulatory hiatus where medicines of unknown quality have flooded the South African market.
*The South African public has been put at risk – not only health-wise but in terms of potentially fruitless expenditure of their disposable income on products which have not been independently assessed.
*This undermines citizens’ rights to bodily and psychological integrity as enshrined in the Constitution of our country.
*It is the Medicines Control Council’s responsibility to regulate all medicines available to the public.
*The Medicines Control Council has failed to ensure that as far as complementary medicines are concerned, their availability is in the public interest, and it has failed to consider “only” these products’ safety, quality and therapeutic efficacy in relation to their effects on the health of South African persons, because it has not required any evidence for these products’ safety, quality and efficacy.
*Based on the Zondi judgment, the Medicines Control Council must resume its statutory obligation to consider all medicinal claims made in the advertising of medicinal products.
*The 2002 call up should be rescinded, and replaced with a notice in terms of Section 19(2) of the Medicines Act – but with the additional provisos of submitting current certificates of analysis and all advertising claims made. A six month period should be stipulated for fulfilment of these requirements."

See also: a news piece on the open letter by Health-e and a blog post on the MCC's regulatory failure by Roy Jobson (one of the signatories).

The return of the Carnival of the Africans

After a hiatus of a couple of months, the Carnival of the Africans is returning on the 28th of this month at Simon Halliday's Amanuensis. If you're an African science blogger or have blogged about African-related science, please check out the guidelines and then email your submissions to Simon at simon(dot)d[dot]halliday(at)gmail{dot}com.

Also see Simon's call for submissions...

Exploring Ötzi

Discovered in 1991 on a glacier in the Ötztal Alps in Austria, Ötzi the Iceman is a beautifully preserved mummy of a man who died in around 3300 BCE. Amazingly, scientist have pinpointed where he lived (by analyzing the isotopic composition of his teeth), what his last meal was (chamois, red deer and some plants), his possible occupation (copper smelter), among many other details. Importantly, it was also determined that he was a victim of violence: an arrowhead was lodged in his shoulder, there were bruises and cuts to various parts of his body, and he apparently received a blow to the head.

The European Academy Bozen/Bolzano recently released a fantastic photoscan of his entire body, which allows anyone to explore and analyze him in detail. I particularly recommend checking out his tattoos -- interesting stuff indeed.

Video: Being open minded

A fantastic video (embedded below, or click here) on open mindedness and critical thinking. A must see, seriously.