Abstract

A process based on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, in particular the concept of “survival of the fittest.” Organisms or entities that are the most effective and efficient at adapting to their environ ment earn the most prolonged existence. The level of success an organism has in adapting to the environment can be measured by the number of offspring an organism procreates and whether the offspring continue, in a similar manner, to successfully adapt to the environment. The theory of natural selection has been applied to a successful organization in that those entities that produce the best outputs outlast the outputs of similar or competing entities and thus have the most longevity. This repor examines the possibility to what extent the natural selection favor artistic behavior in humans.

Natural Selection Favor Artistic Behavior In Humans

Introduction

Approaching human artistic behavior from a cross species biological perspective seems to almost automatically lead to sexual selection. The conspicuous similarities between mostly male traits which evolved under intersexual selection pressures and the different artistic expressions in humans are hard to ignore. Many male animals display colorful traits and engage in behaviors to court females like singing and dancing with apparent similarities to human dance and music. Male bower birds even build and decorate bowers - experimenting with various decorations (mosses, ferns, orchids, snail shells, berries and bark) in various positions, rearranging them, combining them in clusters of uniform color. Regent and Satin Bowerbirds even use a wad of leaves or bark to paint their bower with regurgitated fruit residues. All these efforts only to the end of mating. To Darwin (1871, p 301) it was clear the evolution of these male traits could only be explained as evolutionary outcomes of a female sense of beauty: “When we behold a male bird elaborately displaying his graceful plumes or splendid colours before the female, whilst other birds, not thus decorated, make no such display, it is impossible to doubt that she admires the beauty of her male partner (Darwin, Pp. 96).”

So, Darwin (1871, p 302) assumed we share our tastes of beauty to some extent with other animals: “Whether we can or not give any reason for the pleasure thus derived from vision and hearing, yet man and many of the lower animals are alike pleased by the same colours, graceful shading and forms, and the same sounds.” More about that later. Darwin acknowledged the importance of female choice and the preferences involved, but he did not speculate much about how these preferences evolve. I will briefly discuss what could be called three classes of explanations for the evolution of female preferences and corresponding male display traits. There is good genes selection, Fisher's runaway sexual selection and a more recent group of hypotheses around sensory biases, like sensory exploitation hypothesis. Good genes and Fisherian runaway have been elaborately used to address the evolution of aesthetic and artistic expression in humans. But, as far as I know, sensory biases and sensory exploitation hypothesis haven't, although they offer promising ...