Competitive exclusion principle
In ecology, the competitive exclusion principle, sometimes referred to as Gause's law, is a principle named for Georgy Gause that two species competing for the same limiting resource cannot coexist at constant population values. When one species has even the slightest advantage over another, the one with the advantage will dominate in the long term. This leads either to the extinction of the weaker competitor or to an evolutionary or behavioral shift toward a different ecological niche. This has been supported by both theoretical mathematical models, experiments, and field observations.
Application to humans
Evidence showing that the competitive exclusion principle operates in human groups has been reviewed and integrated into regality theory to explain warlike and peaceful societies.[1] For example, hunter-gatherer groups surrounded by other hunter-gatherer groups in the same ecological niche will fight, at least occasionally, while hunter-gatherer groups surrounded by groups with a different means of subsistence can coexist peacefully.[1] See also Noble savage: Warfare and violence.
For modern human societies, in areas that for now have excess food by not being near the carrying capacity of the areas, this may not temporarily apply, but may do so in the future.
Human groups may also disappear due to voluntary sub-replacement fertility and race mixing, unlikely to happen in nature to non-human species.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 (2017) Warlike and Peaceful Societies: The Interaction of Genes and Culture. Open Book Publishers. DOI:10.11647/OBP.0128. ISBN 978-1-78374-403-9.
