0305 Did I forget something?

In point 0290, I recall Tomasello’s crucial claim that teams involve interdependence and social selection.

In point 292, I say “first”, followed by a discussion on interdependence that lasts until point 0304.

So now, in the next point, 0306, I say “second” and discuss social selection.

0306 Second, what about social selection?

Hominins compete to cooperate.

From the outset, humans are phenotypically prepared to join a team, act with joint attention to goals, enter into roles appropriate to the moment, and figure out the roles that others on the team play.  In order to do this, one must arrive at a judgment.  One must also learn to gesture one’s judgment using the team’s tradition of hand-talk. Yes, each team evolves its own proto-language.

Most often hand-talk requests, informs and shares.

0307 So, how does one join a team?

Is an individual formally invited?  Does mom and dad make an arrangement with other moms and dads?  Does an individual sort of hang out, informally, until some sort of invitation manifests?

We ask the same questions today.  Plus, modern educators have no clue that we are honed by evolution to ask.  Indeed, in order to um… maintain their academic prerogatives, educators tend to prune the tree of life and limit the number of teams that children in “the system” can officially join.  Plus, educators want to monitor and control who joins the teams that they prescribe.

There is a contemporary word for this behavior.  The term is “gatekeeping”.

0308 In contrast, hominins adapt to a Lebenswelt of benevolent gatekeepers.  Gatekeeping is not formal, since hand-talk does not permit explicit abstraction.  There is no list of rules and requirements.  Instead, one person in the team permits an adept to tag along, offering encouragement and mitigating conflicts with other adepts.  If the adept proves incompetent for one particular team, the adept is simply not allowed to tag along, and enters into the orbit of another benevolent gatekeeper.

0309 Each team offers a different culture, in so far as it harbors different roles and joint goals.  These roles and goals are embedded in the nature of the activities.  No one can hand-talk the words, “roles” or “goals”.  These are explicit abstractions.  What is there to picture and point to with manual-brachial gestures?

The expectations and styles of each team should be obvious enough.

These are features that youngsters look for.

0310 Plus, there are lessons that transcend the team.  All teams belong to the community.  All teams promote human flourishing.  All teams compete for members.  All teams produce more than they consume.  All teams share their surplus harvests.

0311 So, what does this have to do with modern educational practices in 2024?

This question raises one of the most hilarious applications of Tomasello’s research.  Tomasello takes seriously the proposition that little human creatures, who end up trapped in the maws of a mechanical revolution in Western education, are designed by nature (some would say, creator) to inform, request and share information in team settings.

No wonder our current crop of educators love Marxism.  Children are the proletariat.  Teachers are the bourgeois who claim to represent their proletarian charges.  Consequently, when modern educators teach bigilibism to students trapped in desks, they merely promulgate the propaganda that supports the communist heroes that they see in the mirror.  In unison, they proclaim, “We are the self-anointed. We are your team. We represent you, the little proletarians, trapped in our system.”

0312 For more laughs along these lines, consider Razie Mah’s blog for June 1-9, 2023, titled, Looking at Betsy Devos’s Book (2022) “Hostages No More”.