Gavotte Quotes

“William Hamilton once referred to the 'gavotte of chromosomes' seen in the process of cell division and in sex. This is a good image - a courtly dance, tuned by evolution, of joining and separating. We can seen some of the same thing on a larger scale, in - to adopt Julian Huxley's phrase - 'the movement of individuality.' The process at this larger scale is not itself an adaptation, a to-and-fro tuned by evolutionary design. Instead it is the recurring upshot of masses of separate evolutionary events. But there is some of the same rhythm of sealing off and opening up, of consolidating and reaching out, in the dynamic linking organisms and Darwinian individuals.”
― Peter Godfrey-Smith, From Groups to Individuals: Evolution and Emerging Individuality