Asquith Pamela J
Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
J Biosci. 2007 Jun;32(4):635-41. doi: 10.1007/s12038-007-0063-7.
Prior to the contribution of genetics or the modern evolutionary synthesis (MES)to natural selection theory, social ecologists searched for factors in addition to natural selection that could influence species change. The idea that sociality, not just biology, was important in determining evolutionary outcomes was prevalent in research in social ecology in the 1920s and 1930s. The influence of 'tradition' (or the transmission of learned behaviours between generations) and the view that animals are active in selecting their own environments,rather than passive organisms acted upon by chance, were given as much attention as natural selection theory in European ecology,while animal aggregation and cooperation studies were pursued in America. Imanishi Kinji's personal library and his scientific notes and papers reveal that he was well aware of this literature and had been profoundly influenced by these earlier viewpoints prior to writing his view of nature in his first book, Seibutsu no Sekai (The World of Living Things,1941). Evidence is presented to show that he developed his theories based partly on early western debates in social ecology while finding inspiration and a way to express his views in the writings of philosopher Nishida Kitaro and, perhaps, General J C Smuts. One of Imanishi's lasting contributions is in the demonstrated results of over 40 years of subsequent ecological and ethological research by Imanishi and those trained by him that maintained the broader viewpoints on evolution that had been dropped from the western corpus of research by the 1950s. The current attempt to again get beyond natural selection theory is reflected in debates surrounding genetic and cultural evolution of cooperation,the biology of 'traditions' and the idea of 'culture' in animal societies.
在遗传学或现代进化综合理论（MES）对自然选择理论做出贡献之前，社会生态学家就在寻找除自然选择之外可能影响物种变化的因素。社会性而非仅仅生物学因素在决定进化结果中很重要这一观点，在20世纪20年代和30年代的社会生态学研究中很普遍。“传统”（或习得行为在代际间的传递）的影响，以及动物在选择自身环境时是主动的而非受偶然因素作用的被动有机体这一观点，在欧洲生态学中与自然选择理论受到同样多的关注，而在美国则开展了动物聚集与合作的研究。今西锦司的私人藏书以及他的科学笔记和论文表明，在他于第一本书《生物的世界》（1941年）中阐述其自然观之前，他就已熟知这些文献，并深受这些早期观点的影响。有证据表明，他部分基于西方早期社会生态学的争论来发展自己的理论，同时在哲学家西田几多郎或许还有J.C.斯马茨将军的著作中找到灵感及表达自己观点的方式。今西的一项持久贡献在于，他本人以及受他指导的人经过40多年后续的生态和行为学研究，所展示的结果保持了在西方研究主体中到20世纪50年代已被摒弃的关于进化的更宽泛观点。当前再次超越自然选择理论的尝试，体现在围绕合作的基因与文化进化、“传统”生物学以及动物社会中“文化”概念的争论中。
