Masculinity and the Mechanisms of Human Self-Domestication

Abstract

Pre-historic decline in human craniofacial masculinity has been proposed as evidence of selection against reactive aggression and a process of 'human self-domestication' thought to have promoted complex capacities including language, culture, and cumulative technological development. This follows observations of similar morphological changes in non-human animals under selection for reduced aggression. Two distinct domestication hypotheses posit developmental explanations; involving dampened migration of embryonic neural crest cells (NCCs), and declining androgen influences, respectively. Here, I assess the operation and potential interaction of these two mechanisms and consider their role in human adaptation to a cooperative sociocultural niche. Show more