Workpackage 6

WP6 - Can we establish an operational synthesis of the mechanisms that have produced major and irreversible changes in the evolution of human societies?

Tipping points imply discipline-dependent definitions, all aiming to decipher the causes and processes leading to points of no return:

• Physics (founding discipline of the concept of tipping point): threshold in a hysteresis loop beyond which the system rapidly changes its state
• Sociology: transition that sees the generalization of a previously rare phenomenon
• Climatology: threshold beyond which major changes affect the climate system at a global scale
• Catastrophe theory: value of a parameter for which all equilibria change abruptly

•  Evolutionary biology: populations can often cope with fairly large changes in environmental parameters, but sometimes they suddenly collapse and become extinct. This discipline questions the conditions under which these evolutionary tipping points occur and discusses how vulnerability to such cryptic threats may depend on the genetic architecture and life history of the organisms involved

Unsurprisingly, no tipping point theory exists yet for the biological and cultural evolution of hominin societies. Indeed their evolution results from the interaction of many complex systems, some rooted in biology and evolution, others in a process of niche construction still at work today, which risks to become maladapted to the size and resources of our planet.

WP6 is coordinated by the two project leaders and all the PIs and aims:

1.  to contrast the definitions of tipping point by different disciplines and to verify their relevance and applicability to understanding the biological and cultural evolution of human societies
2.  to build bridges between the results and the working hypotheses emerging from WP1 to WP5 to evaluate their congruence
3.  to foster activities (e.g., workshops, interaction with specialists from other disciplines) around questions of cross-cutting interest that will allow us to approach the subject from multiple angles
4. to lay the foundations of a theory of tipping points in the human sciences that integrate the theoretical and methodological contributions of all the disciplines that have characterized the phenomenon. We have identified several first cross-cutting topics: the Baldwin effect, processes of hominins expansion, contraction and extinction, gender in societal evolution, the impact of climate change on cultural heritage, the interplay between micro and macro scale evolutionary processes (biological and cultural), and serenpidity in the Sciences of the Human Past.

© Gauthier Devilder, 2022