Reflections on Tribalism and Aging.

As a geriatric psychiatrist, I have become interested in gene-culture coevolution to better understand the meaning of aging. This investigation has led me to try to understand tribalism. This essay provides a background on gene-culture coevolution and tribalism from five, of several, comprehensible and recommendable books: The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson, The Secret of Our Success by Joseph Henrich, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society by Nicholas Christakis, Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman, and Survival of the Friendliest by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods. Reading and rereading these works has changed my understanding of what it means to be human and to have optimism in these times of the problems of tribalism. I hope a summary of these works will stimulate others to further investigate gene-culture evolution, tribalism and aging.