Ritual’s Evolutionary Landscapes

2021 ◽  
pp. 127-144
Author(s):  
Harvey Whitehouse
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Epigenetic Landscape ◽  
Basic Model ◽  
Different Levels

Understanding the role of ritual in the evolution of social complexity requires attention to many complex, interacting processes operating at different levels. This chapter attempts to sort these out into a coherent overarching framework by building on the ideas of British biologist, philosopher, and polymath C. H. Waddington, who put forward the idea of an ‘epigenetic landscape’ to explain how organisms develop. Waddington’s basic model can be extended to explain how cognitive-developmental and social-historical landscapes unfold and how all three kinds of landscapes interact. Adopting this overarching perspective on cultural evolution helps bridge the unnecessary divisions among branches of evolutionary theory and psychology that emphasize distinct but potentially complementary aspects of social learning and cultural transmission.

scholarly journals Digital culture

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Acerbi
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Future Directions

Cultural evolution can provide a useful framework to understand how information is produced, transmitted, and selected in contemporary online, digital, media. The diffusion of digital technologies triggered a radical departure from previous modalities of cultural transmission but, at the same time, general characteristics of human cultural evolution and cognition influence these developments. In this chapter, I will explore some areas where the links between cultural evolution research and digital media seem more promising. As cultural evolution-inspired research on internet phenomena is still in its infancy, these areas represent suggestions and links with works in other disciplines more than reviews of past research in cultural evolution. These include topics such as how to characterise the online effects of social influence and the spread of information; the possibility that digital, online, media could enhance cumulative culture; and the differences between online and offline cultural transmission. In the last section I will consider other possible future directions: the influences of different affordances in different media supporting cultural transmission; the role of producers of cultural traits; and, finally, some considerations on the effects on cultural dynamics of algorithms selecting information.

Modeling Social Learning and Culture

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Hoppitt ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Reaction Diffusion ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Mathematical Expressions ◽  
Mathematical Techniques ◽  
Neutral Models

This chapter describes a variety of approaches to modeling social learning, cultural evolution, and gene-culture coevolution. The model-building exercise typically starts with a set of assumptions about the key processes to be explored, along with the nature of their relations. These assumptions are then translated into the mathematical expressions that constitute the model. The operation of the model is then investigated, normally using a combination of analytical mathematical techniques and simulation, to determine relevant outcomes, such as the equilibrium states or patterns of change over time. The chapter presents examples of the modeling of cultural transmission and considers parallels between cultural and biological evolution. It then discusses theoretical approaches to social learning and cultural evolution, including population-genetic style models of cultural evolution and gene-culture coevolution, neutral models and random copying, social foraging theory, spatially explicit models, reaction-diffusion models, agent-based models, and phylogenetic models.

scholarly journals Language As a Memory Carrier Of Perceptually-Based Knowledge. Selected Aspects Of Imagery In Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale And Troilus And Criseyde

2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-141
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Stadnik
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Troilus And Criseyde ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

AbstractIn the paper, we address the question of the relation between language and culture from a Cognitive Linguistic perspective. While accounting for the role of language as an aid to cultural transmission in maintaining the community’s conceptual order, we address the question of whether the concept of a linguistic worldview aptly captures the interplay between language and culture. We suggest that, due to cumulative cultural evolution spurred by the incessant development of human knowledge, layers of conceptualisations accumulate over time. It is proposed that this palimpsest of conceptualisations results from human interaction that transcends the constraints of the present moment, encompassing the past and present, as well as delineating possible developments of the community’s future conceptual order.

scholarly journals Identifying innovation in laboratory studies of cultural evolution: rates of retention and measures of adaptation

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1690) ◽  
pp. 20150193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Caldwell ◽  
Hannah Cornish ◽  
Anne Kandler
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Laboratory Studies ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Task Success

In recent years, laboratory studies of cultural evolution have become increasingly prevalent as a means of identifying and understanding the effects of cultural transmission on the form and functionality of transmitted material. The datasets generated by these studies may provide insights into the conditions encouraging, or inhibiting, high rates of innovation, as well as the effect that this has on measures of adaptive cultural change. Here we review recent experimental studies of cultural evolution with a view to elucidating the role of innovation in generating observed trends. We first consider how tasks are presented to participants, and how the corresponding conceptualization of task success is likely to influence the degree of intent underlying any deviations from perfect reproduction. We then consider the measures of interest used by the researchers to track the changes that occur as a result of transmission, and how these are likely to be affected by differing rates of retention. We conclude that considering studies of cultural evolution from the perspective of innovation provides us with valuable insights that help to clarify important differences in research designs, which have implications for the likely effects of variation in retention rates on measures of cultural adaptation.

scholarly journals Cultura, adaptación y ciencias sociales: una aproximación naturalista

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laureano Castro ◽  
Luis Castro ◽  
Miguel Á. Castro ◽  
Miguel Á. Toro
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Inheritance System

RESUMENEn la primera parte de este artículo defendemos que la evolución de la cultura en nuestra especie es consecuencia de una naturaleza humana esencialmente valorativa, la naturaleza de Homo suadens. La propuesta considera que nuestros antepasados homínidos dotados de la capacidad de aprobar y reprobar la conducta ajena desarrollaron un sistema de transmisión cultural assessor entre padres e hijos, el cual transformó el aprendizaje social en un sistema de herencia acumulativo. En la segunda parte, defendemos, desde nuestra condición de Homo suadens, la necesidad de reconceptualizar algunos de los problemas presentes en el núcleo teórico de las ciencias sociales.PALABRAS CLAVEAPRENDIZAJE SOCIAL, EVOLUCIÓN CULTURAL, TRANSMISIÓN ASSESSOR, HOMO SUADENSABSTRACTIn this paper, first we argue that the evolution of culture in our species is the result of an essentially evaluative human nature, the nature of Homo suadens. The proposal considers that our hominid ancestors endowed with the ability to approve or disapprove of the conduct of others developed a system of assessor cultural transmission between parents and children, who transformed social learning into a cumulative inheritance system. Second, we defend, from our Homo suadens condition, the need to reconceptualise some of the problems lying at the theoretical core of social sciences.KEY WORDSSOCIAL LEARNING, CULTURAL EVOLUTION, ASSESSOR TRANSMISSION, HOMO SUADENS

An evolutionary theory of music needs to care about developmental timing

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin E. Hannon ◽  
Alyssa N. Crittenden ◽  
Joel S. Snyder ◽  
Karli M. Nave
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Developmental Timing ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Infancy And Early Childhood

Abstract Both target papers cite evidence from infancy and early childhood to support the notion of human musicality as a somewhat static suite of capacities; however, in our view they do not adequately acknowledge the critical role of developmental timing, the acquisition process, or the dynamics of social learning, especially during later periods of development such as middle childhood.

scholarly journals Descent with modification and the archaeological record

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1567) ◽  
pp. 1070-1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Shennan
Keyword(s):  
Inverse Problem ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Number Of Genes ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Made In

Recent years have seen major advances in our understanding of the way in which cultural transmission takes place and the factors that affect it. The theoretical foundations of those advances have been built by postulating the existence of a variety of different processes and deriving their consequences mathematically or by simulation. The operation of these processes in the real world can be studied through experiment and naturalistic observation. In contrast, archaeologists have an ‘inverse problem’. For them the object of study is the residues of different behaviours represented by the archaeological record and the problem is to infer the microscale processes that produced them, a vital task for cultural evolution since this is the only direct record of past cultural patterns. The situation is analogous to that faced by population geneticists scanning large number of genes and looking for evidence of selection as opposed to drift, but more complicated for many reasons, not least the enormous variety of different forces that affect cultural transmission. This paper reviews the progress that has been made in inferring processes from patterns and the role of demography in those processes, together with the problems that have arisen.

scholarly journals Not by transmission alone: the role of invention in cultural evolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1828) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Perry ◽  
Alecia Carter ◽  
Marco Smolla ◽  
Erol Akçay ◽  
Sabine Nöbel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
New Research

Innovation—the combination of invention and social learning—can empower species to invade new niches via cultural adaptation. Social learning has typically been regarded as the fundamental driver for the emergence of traditions and thus culture. Consequently, invention has been relatively understudied outside the human lineage—despite being the source of new traditions. This neglect leaves basic questions unanswered: what factors promote the creation of new ideas and practices? What affects their spread or loss? We critically review the existing literature, focusing on four levels of investigation: traits (what sorts of behaviours are easiest to invent?), individuals (what factors make some individuals more likely to be inventors?), ecological contexts (what aspects of the environment make invention or transmission more likely?), and populations (what features of relationships and societies promote the rise and spread of new inventions?). We aim to inspire new research by highlighting theoretical and empirical gaps in the study of innovation, focusing primarily on inventions in non-humans. Understanding the role of invention and innovation in the history of life requires a well-developed theoretical framework (which embraces cognitive processes) and a taxonomically broad, cross-species dataset that explicitly investigates inventions and their transmission. We outline such an agenda here. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Foundations of cultural evolution’.

Psychological origins of the Industrial Revolution: More work is needed!

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Baumard
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Genetic Selection ◽  
Standards Of Living

Abstract I am grateful to have received so many stimulating commentaries from interested colleagues regarding the psychological origins of the Industrial Revolution and the role of evolutionary theory in understanding historical phenomena. Commentators criticized, extended, and explored the implications of the perspective I presented, and I wholeheartedly agree with many commentaries that more work is needed. In this response, I thus focus on what is needed to further test the psychological origins of the Industrial Revolution. Specifically, I argue, in agreement with many commentators, that we need: (1) better data about standards of living, psychological preferences, and innovation rates (sect. R1); (2) better models to understand the role of resources (and not just mortality) in driving cultural evolution and the multiple aspects of the behavioral constellation of affluence (sect. R2); and (3) better predictions and better statistical instruments to disentangle the possible mechanisms behind the rise of innovativeness (genetic selection, rational choice, and phenotypic plasticity) (sect. R3).

scholarly journals Conspiracy Theories: A Cultural Evolution Theory approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Michael Stubbersfield
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Academic Fields ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Cultural Evolution Theory

Conspiracy theories have been part of human culture for hundreds of years, if not millennia, and have been the subject of research in academic fields such as Social Psychology, Political Science and Cultural Studies. At present, there has been little research examining conspiracy theories from a Cultural Evolution perspective. This chapter discusses the value of Cultural Evolution approaches to understanding the diffusion of conspiracy theories. Focusing on the role of biases in cultural transmission, it argues that a key advantage of applying a Cultural Evolution approach to this phenomenon is that it provides a strong theoretical and methodological framework to bridge the individual, inter-individual and population level factors that explain the cultural success of conspiracy theories, with potential for producing insights into how to limit their negative influence.

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