Professor Dr.phil. Dr.med. Ulrich Mueller
The closed marriage market of the royal houses in Europe 1800-1939: selection but no
group selection
Abstract
An exclusive high status group, the cohorts 1800-1939 of the European royal nobility, which
had been a highly inbreeding, closed marriage market for centuries with efficient defenses
against invaders, and which also displayed a high mean fitness in comparison with the
surrounding population, was identified as an ideal object for studying eventual effects of
group selection of altruism.
In accordance with group selection theory, it was predicted that 1. the group as a whole
should have a lower sex ratio at birth than the surrounding population; 2. within the group,
neither fitness nor sex ratio at birth should vary with dynastic status.
It was found, however, that 1.the group as a whole had a higher sex ratio at birth among their
children than the surrounding population; 2. within the group, fitness increased, the sex ratio
decreased with high status, leaving the top strata with their fitness far above the average, and
the sex ratio of their offspring at birth exactly at the average of the surrounding population.
Thus, in a human group being an ideal object for group selection of altruism to show
observable effects, if it plays any role in the evolution of human sociality at all, no trace of
group selection was found.
Keywords: marriage market, royal, nobility, group selection, Homo sapiens, fitness
Ulrich Mueller
Institute of Medical Sociology and Social Medicine
Center for Methodology and Health Sciences
Medical School
University of Marburg
Bunsen Strasse 2
35033 Marburg
Germany
+49-6421-286244
+49-6421-285660
mueller2@mailer.uni-marburg.de homepage: http://www.med.uni-marburg.de/medsozio
Institut fuer Medizinische Soziologie und Sozialmedizin
Zentrum fuer Methodenwissenschaften und Gesundheitsforschung
Fachbereich Humanmedizin
Universitaet Marburg
Bunsenstrasse 2
D-35033 Marburg