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SUMMARY:Why be a monk? - Prof Ruth Mace\, UCL
DTSTART:20231127T160000Z
DTEND:20231127T170000Z
UID:TALK209062@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Mark Dyble
DESCRIPTION:[This is a joint event with the Garrod Research Seminars]\n\nH
 ere we examine the evolution of religious celibacy from an evolutionary pe
 rspective. We use this issue to address the wider question of whether fitn
 ess considerations underly the evolution of cultural traits.   We use the 
 tools from behavioural ecology. We model how sending a child to the monast
 ery\, to live a celibate life\, could evolve as a mechanism to enhance inc
 lusive fitness. If close kin benefit from the decision and the decision is
  made by parents rather than the boy himself\, then sending more than a ne
 gligible proportion of sons to the monastery to live as monks can be favou
 red by selection.  We test the model with demographic data from Western Ch
 ina\, where a significant number of young boys were sent to live as monks 
 in Tibetan monasteries.  We show that the decision to send a son to monast
 ery was not costly to the parents of monks in terms of inclusive fitness a
 nd thus can evolve by kin selection.  Thus monasteries represents an examp
 le of a complex institution that may have arisen due to kin-selected benef
 its.
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Henry Wellcome Building
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