What is your definition of community?
Stress Hormones and Social Rank
Questions
1. Who is Dunbar?
2. What is his number?
3. Why should I pay any attention to any of this? What does it have to do with community?
Answers
1, Robin Dunbar is a Professor of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University in England. He has published several books focused on
2. 150 150 150 (5, 15, 50, 150, ...)
[fittingly, the term Dunbar’s number first appeared on facebook]
Basically, Dunbar plotted the ratio of neocortex to total brain volume vs the group size for several primate species, then extrapolated that to the human neocortex/total value — the corresponding group size is 150.
3. “Know thyself”
“the proper study of mankind is man”
“look at the funny monkeys!”
From the point of view of network theory, a community is an assembly of people in which the average connectivity is greater than or equal to 1. If no one is connected to anyone — no community. As more people cement relationships with each other the quality of the community increases. But as the group size increases, keeping track of people gets harder and harder.
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Why do we (humans) do the things we do? Why are we the way we are?
Dunbar believes that evolutionary biology provides a framework for investigating these questions and follows through in his 2014 publication, Thinking Big: How the Evolution of Social Life Shaped the Human Mind.
Put most simply, Dunbar maintains that our species expanded our cognitive capabilities in order to keep track of … gossip (within a large community).
Using language and mirror neurons we are able to keep track of who likes who, who doesn’t, who is sleeping with who, etc, etc,. The result is (1) a reduction in the time required for maintaining personal bonds between individuals [compared to intensive grooming as is seen in other primates], (2) thus freeing up time spent in foraging for food, and in addition (3) making possible a stable group large enough to fend off attacks by predators.
But the absolute group size is determined by brain size. The bigger your brain, the more relationships you can keep track of. The number of possible relationships increases exponentially with group size.
I’ve merely scratched the surface of this interesting idea. Dunbar publishes often, as a simple google search will reveal.
What do you want to talk about today?
Data & Democracy for 2018 conference:
18 speakers (including DKos’s own peregrine kate, navajo, Denise Oliver Velez, Chris Reeves, and myself)
Over 100 attendees
8 very kind volunteers helping out (including DKos’s MsSpentYouth and gordon20024)
Private post-conference dinner for speakers and volunteers at Durham’s wonderful Dos Perros
Bloggers/journos attending include Digby’s Hullabaloo and the Institute for Southern Studies’ indispensable Facing South
Affiliations of attendees include:
- NC Progressive Democratic Caucus
- Progressive Democrats of Orange County
- Institute For Southern Studies
- WCDP Tech Corps
- People's Alliance
- North Carolina State University
- League of Women Voters
- Neighbors On Call
- Washtenaw County (MI) Democratic Party
- CivicRise
- Durham Democratic Women
- Democracy North Carolina
- You Can Vote
- Orange County Democratic Party
- Rise Together NC
- Democratic Women of Guilford County
- Kill The Bill
- Wake Democratic Mens Club
- Southern Coalition for Social Justice
- NAACP
- Everyone's North Carolina
- Now Or Never NC
- Citizens In Action
- Our Shot NC
- Insightus
- Together We Will NC
- Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill
- Daily Kos
Online registration will close soon, so if you’re coming now’s the time to register. No tickets will be available at the door.
RSVPS
1. peregrine kate
2. randallt
3. joieau
4. Gordon20024
5. Lamont Cranston
6. Otteray Scribe
7.
MAYBEES :
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VIRGINIA KOSSACKS!