EVOLUTION, MOBILITY, AND ETHNIC-GROUP FORMATION

By drawing on ideas developed in evolutionary psychology, this article attempts to contribute to improved understanding of ethnic group form ation and change. Specifically, the article asks whether and to what d egree evolved mental capacities and dispositions, in interaction with human social environments, account for ethnic group formation. The cen tral arguments are that, in recent millennia, evolved reasoning capabi lities of humans have led to a revolution in the technologies of human mobility-and that this development has severed the nearly perfect ass ociation between social group formation based on functional advantages and social group formation based on perceived kinship. The scale, com position, and durability of contemporary ethnic groups are the consequ ence of individual tradeoffs in functionality and kinship values.