Evolution and Economics

The theory of comparative advantage may lie at the heart of humanity’s evolutionary.

Homo Economics?

Since the days of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, advocates of free trade and the division of labor, including this newspaper, have lauded the advantage of those economic principles. Until now, though no one has suggested that they might be responsible for the very existence of humanity. But that is thesis propounded by Jason Shorten of the University of Wyoming and his colleagues. For Dr Shorten is suggesting that trade and specialization are the reasons Homo sapiens displaced previous members of the genus such as Homo Neanderthals (Neanderthal man) and emerged triumphant as the only species of humanity.

Neanderthal man has had a bad cultural rap over the years since the discovery of the first specimen in the Meander valley in Germany in the mid-19^th century. The caveman image of a stupid grunting hairy thick-skulked parody of graceful modem humanity has stuck in the public consciousness. But current scholarship suggests Neanderthals were probably about as smart as modem humans and also capable of speech. If they were hairy strong and tough which they were that was an appropriate adaptation to the ice-age conditions in which they lived. So why did they become extinct?

Neanderthals existed perfectly successfully for 200,000 years before Homo sapiens arrived in their European homeland about 40,000 years ago after a circuitous journey from Africa via central Asia. But 10,000 years later they were gone, so it seems likely that the arrival of modem man was the cause. The two species certainly occupied more or less the same ecological niche (hunting a wide range of animals, and gathering a similarly eclectic range of plant food) and would thus have competitors.

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