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Chapter 11 - The Timescale of Deep History and of Human Evolution

from Part II - Entangled Timescales of Visual Arts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2025

Paul van Geert
Paul van Geert
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
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Summary

Chapter 11 deals with the timescale of history and human evolution. It offers a complexity approach to the evolution of art that attempts to move beyond simplistic theories of the survival function of art, including the much-debated issue of the function of art in the context of sexual selection. After discussing the basic principles of evolution from a complex systems approach, the chapter outlines different evolutionary scenarios: the survival-enhancing function, on the one hand, and the view of art as an evolutionary by-product, on the other. By showing how both evolution and human activity are entangled, interaction-dominated dynamics, the chapter provides an alternative to simplistic gene-for-art assumptions.

Keywords

evolutiongeneticsadaptationby-product modelexaptationhomo (genus)sexual selectionsurvival-of-the fittestevolutionary functionneo-Darwinian theory
Type
Chapter
Information
A Complex Systems View on the Visual Arts , pp. 303 - 328
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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