Mendoza Straffon Larissa
Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Front Psychol. 2021 Nov 22;12:767409. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.767409. eCollection 2021.
The fact that world-over people seem inexplicably motivated to allocate time and effort to apparently useless cultural practices, like the arts, has led several evolutionary scholars to suggest that these might be costly Zahavian signals correlated with genetic fitness, such as the infamous peacock's tail. In this paper, I review the fundamental arguments of the hypothesis that art evolved and serves as a costly Zahavian signal. First, I look into the hypothesis that humans exert mate choice for indirect benefits and argue that the data supports mate choice for direct benefits instead. Second, I argue that art practice may well be a costly signal, however not necessarily related to good genes. Third, I suggest that Thorstein Veblen's original concept of conspicuous signals as social tools to obtain and convey prestige provides a better account than the Zahavian model for the evolution and function of art in society. As a Veblenian signal, art could still have many of the effects suggested for visual art as a Zahavian signal, except not for the indirect benefits of optimal offspring, but for the direct benefits of acquiring and conveying social status.
世界各地的人们似乎莫名地热衷于将时间和精力投入到诸如艺术等看似无用的文化活动中，这一现象促使一些进化领域的学者提出，这些活动可能是与基因适应性相关的高成本扎哈维信号，就像臭名昭著的孔雀尾巴。在本文中，我回顾了艺术进化并作为高成本扎哈维信号这一假说的基本论点。首先，我探讨了人类进行配偶选择是为了获取间接利益这一假说，并指出数据支持配偶选择是为了直接利益这一观点。其次，我认为艺术活动很可能是一种高成本信号，但不一定与优良基因相关。第三，我提出托斯丹·凡勃伦将炫耀性信号视为获取和传递声望的社会工具的原始概念，比扎哈维模型更能解释艺术在社会中的进化与功能。作为一种凡勃伦式信号，艺术仍可能具有许多被认为视觉艺术作为扎哈维信号会产生的效果，只是不是为了获得最优后代的间接利益，而是为了获取和传递社会地位的直接利益。
