{"id":10266,"date":"2026-03-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=10266"},"modified":"2025-10-12T20:59:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T20:59:20","slug":"looking-at-augustin-fuentess-article-2016-the-extended-evolutionary-synthesis-part-6-of-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=10266","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Augustin Fuentes’s Article (2016) “The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis…” (Part 6 of 16)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0062 In section two, the author launches into an apparently independent complaint, besides the complaint that ethnographers are trained to be professionals, rather than evolutionary scientists.  This second complaint concerns Neodarwinism.  As it is currently conceived, the doctrine that explains natural history<\/em> is incapable of… um… putting ethnography2b<\/sub> into perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0063 How does this complaint play out in terms of the prior two-level interscope?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a perspective level that contextualizes the situation-level of ethnography2b<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I suspect that the perspective level will be filled in by Neodarwinism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the current formulation of the “darwinism” of Neodarwinism is inadequate for framing the perspective level in the above figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this where novel theories, such as “niche construction”, enter the picture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0064 Prior to the year, 2000 A.D., most evolutionary theorists frame adaptations<\/em> as individual traits that are capable of exploiting a niche<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question arises, “What is a niche?<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0065 One answer appears in Comments on Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight’s Book (2017) Adam and the Genome,<\/em>which is now serialized in Razie Mah’s blog for November 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A “niche1b<\/sub>” is the potential1b<\/sub> of an actuality independent of the adapting species2a<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An “adaptation2b<\/sub>” emerges from (and situates) that potential1b<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0066 Here is a picture of the resulting two-level interscope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the situation level, the normal context of natural selection3b<\/sub> bring the actuality of an adaptation2b<\/sub> into relation with a niche1b<\/sub>, defined as the potential1b<\/sub> of an actuality independent of the adapting species2a<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0067 This formulation provides a theoretical framework for assessing fitness-based heuristics1b<\/sub> to a given social, ecological or environmental opportunity or constraint2a<\/sub>.  Note how the content-level normal context3a<\/sub> and potential1a<\/sub>are not required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0068 For example, the so-called “Cambrian Explosion” in diversity (and size) of multicellular eukaryotic animal life occurs precisely after the Earth’s atmosphere has been enriched with oxygen, a waste product of prokaryotic photosynthetic activity.  The rising atmospheric levels of oxygen<\/em> is the actuality independent of the many forms of life<\/em>.  Prosperous forms<\/em> have one thing in common<\/em>.  They have mitochondria,<\/em> cellular organelles adapted to an oxygen-rich environment<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0069 Okay, what about niche construction?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With many species, the presence of the species<\/em> alters the actuality independent of the adapting species<\/em>.  This is now labeled, “niche construction”.  “Niche construction” is the label that sustains the idea of a novel evolutionary synthesis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0070 So, what is the foundation of so-called “niche construction”?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the above figure, the answer is obvious.  The adaptation of the species2b<\/sub><\/em> alters the previously ignored (or assumed) content-level normal context3a<\/sub> and potential1a<\/sub><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0071 Here is a picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0072 On the content level, a normal context3a<\/sub> (that can be altered by the adapting species2b<\/sub>) brings an actuality (apparently independent of the adapting species)2a<\/sub> into relation with the possibility of ‘an alteration in the actuality’1a<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0073 On the situation level, the normal context of natural selection3b<\/sub> brings the actuality of an adaptation2b<\/sub> into relation to the species’ niche1b<\/sub>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0062 In section two, the author launches into an apparently independent complaint, besides the complaint that ethnographers are trained to be professionals, rather than evolutionary scientists.  This second complaint concerns Neodarwinism.  As it is currently conceived, the doctrine that explains natural history is incapable of… um… putting ethnography2b into perspective. 0063 How does this complaint play out in terms of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[418],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-review"],"yoast_head":"\nLooking at Augustin Fuentes's Article (2016) "The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis..." 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