#192 Paulo Gama Mota: The History of Sexual Selection Theory, And Cultural Evolution

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Dr. Paulo Gama Mota is Associate Professor of Biology in the Department of Life Sciences of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra. He’s also a researcher at the Center for Research in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources at he University of Porto (CIBIO). Dr. Gama Mota is very interested in science communication, having been a former Director of the National Museum of Science and Technique, and the Museum of Science of the University of Coimbra (2006-2015), and also an organizer of initiatives and science communication exhibitions, as well as citizen science projects. His areas of interest and research include: animal behavior, behavioral ecology, evolutionary biology, and evolutionary anthropology.

In this episode, our primary focus is on sexual selection. We start off by talking about how Darwin conceived of sexual selection, the reactions he got to that theory, and then some of the major developments in the 20th century that led to a full-fledged sexual selection theory, that now is at the basis of the study of any aspects of animal behavior. The conversation eventually goes off to group selection and multilevel selection approaches, and we talk about cultural evolution, gene-culture coevolution, and basically the interplay between biology and culture.

Time Links:
01:14 Darwin and sexual selection theory
07:12 Reactions to natural selection in the 19th century
19:12 How genetics and natural selection work
26:20 The development of kin selection theory
34:36 About group selection and a multilevel selection approach
42:18 Cultural and genetic group selection
51:46 Gene-culture coevolution
57:26 How to think about the relationship between biology and culture
1:08:24 The ideological backlash against biological approaches to human behavior
1:15:23 Follow Dr. Gama Mota’s work!
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Central article for the discussion:
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A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, AND HERBERT GINTIS!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE and ROSEY!

I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:

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#TheDissenter #PauloGamaMota #EvolutionaryBiology #SexualSelection