scholarly journals The Encultured Primate: Thresholds and Transitions in Hominin Cultural Evolution

Philosophies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Chris Buskes
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Shed Light

This article tries to shed light on the mystery of human culture. Human beings are the only extant species with cumulative, evolving cultures. Many animal species do have cultural traditions in the form of socially transmitted practices but they typically lack cumulative culture. Why is that? This discrepancy between humans and animals is even more puzzling if one realizes that culture seems highly advantageous. Thanks to their accumulated knowledge and techniques our early ancestors were able to leave their cradle in Africa and swarm out across the planet, thereby adjusting themselves to a whole range of new environments. Without culture this would have been impossible. So we may ask once again: if cumulative culture is so useful, why don’t other animals have it? In order to explain this mystery I won’t appeal to the major transitions in human evolution—like walking upright, crafting stone tools and controlling fire, etc.,—because that would be question begging. Instead I try to unearth the mechanisms that caused those evolutionary turning points to occur in the first place. It seems that unlike other animals, humans are predisposed to efficiently acquire, store and transmit cultural information in such ways that our cultures can genuinely evolve.

scholarly journals The transition to foraging for dense and predictable resources and its impact on the evolution of modern humans

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1698) ◽  
pp. 20150239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis W. Marean
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Rivers And Lakes ◽  
Broad Spectrum Revolution ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Empirical Record

Scientists have identified a series of milestones in the evolution of the human food quest that are anticipated to have had far-reaching impacts on biological, behavioural and cultural evolution: the inclusion of substantial portions of meat, the broad spectrum revolution and the transition to food production. The foraging shift to dense and predictable resources is another key milestone that had consequential impacts on the later part of human evolution. The theory of economic defendability predicts that this shift had an important consequence—elevated levels of intergroup territoriality and conflict. In this paper, this theory is integrated with a well-established general theory of hunter–gatherer adaptations and is used to make predictions for the sequence of appearance of several evolved traits of modern humans. The distribution of dense and predictable resources in Africa is reviewed and found to occur only in aquatic contexts (coasts, rivers and lakes). The palaeoanthropological empirical record contains recurrent evidence for a shift to the exploitation of dense and predictable resources by 110 000 years ago, and the first known occurrence is in a marine coastal context in South Africa. Some theory predicts that this elevated conflict would have provided the conditions for selection for the hyperprosocial behaviours unique to modern humans. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’.

scholarly journals Human evolution and transitions in individuality

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo C. Abrantes
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
Dual Inheritance Theory ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Dual Inheritance ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Way

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates whether it is fruitful to describe the role culture began to play at some point in the hominin lineage as pointing to a transition in individuality, by reference to the works of Buss, Maynard-Smith and Szathmáry, Michod and Godfrey-Smith. The chief question addressed is whether a population of groups having different cultural phenotypes is either paradigmatically Darwinian or marginal, by using Godfrey-Smith’s representation of such transitions in a multi-dimensional space. Richerson and Boyd’s «dual inheritance» theory, and the explanation it provides of the evolution of cooperation in the hominin lineage, is taken into account to shed light on the way Godfrey-Smith deals with cultural evolution, especially concerning the amount of variation in a population of groups with various cultural phenotypes, the role played by multi-level selection in the evolutionary dynamics of such a population and the adequacy of different modalities of group-reproduction.KEYWORDSTRANSITIONS IN INDIVIDUALITY, CULTURAL EVOLUTION, DARWINIAN POPULATIONS, EVOLUTION OF COOPERATION, DUAL INHERITANCE THEORYRESUMENEste trabajo indaga acerca de si es fructífero o no describir el papel que la cultura comenzó a jugar en algún punto en el linaje de los homininos como si se tratara de una transición en la individualidad, en referencia a las obras de Buss, Maynard-Smith y Szathmáry, y Michod y Godfrey-Smith. La cuestión principal es si una población de grupos con diferentes fenotipos culturales es o bien paradigmáticamente darwiniana o bien marginal, usando para ello la representación de Godfrey-Smith de tales transiciones en un espacio multidimensional. La teoría de la «herencia dual» de Richerson y Boyd, y la explicación que proporciona de la cooperación en el linaje hominino es tenida en cuenta para arrojar luz sobre el modo en que Godfrey-Smith trata la evolución cultural, especialmente en lo concerniente a la cantidad de variación en una población de grupos con diversos fenotipos culturales, el papel jugado por la selección multi-nivel en el dinámica evolutiva de tal población y la adecuación de diferentes modalidades de reproducción de grupos.PALABRAS CLAVETRANSICIONES EN LA INDIVIDUALIDAD, EVOLUCIÓN CULTURAL, POBLACIONES DARWINIANAS, EVOLUCIÓN DE LA COOPERACIÓN, TEORÍA DE LA HERENCIA DUAL

scholarly journals An earlier origin for stone tool making: implications for cognitive evolution and the transition to Homo

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1698) ◽  
pp. 20150233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason E. Lewis ◽  
Sonia Harmand
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Behavioural Diversity

The discovery of the earliest known stone tools at Lomekwi 3 (LOM3) from West Turkana, Kenya, dated to 3.3 Ma, raises new questions about the mode and tempo of key adaptations in the hominin lineage. The LOM3 tools date to before the earliest known fossils attributed to Homo at 2.8 Ma. They were made and deposited in a more C 3 environment than were the earliest Oldowan tools at 2.6 Ma. Their discovery leads to renewed investigation on the timing of the emergence of human-like manipulative capabilities in early hominins and implications for reconstructing cognition. The LOM3 artefacts form part of an emerging paradigm shift in palaeoanthropology, in which: tool-use and tool-making behaviours are not limited to the genus Homo ; cranial, post-cranial and behavioural diversity in early Homo is much wider than previously thought; and these evolutionary changes may not have been direct adaptations to living in savannah grassland environments. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution'.

scholarly journals Complex foraging behaviours in wild birds emerge from social learning and recombination of components

2021 ◽  
Vol 377 (1843) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Wild ◽  
M. Chimento ◽  
K. McMahon ◽  
D. R. Farine ◽  
B. C. Sheldon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Experimental Tests ◽  
Collective Knowledge ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution ◽  
Over Time

Recent well-documented cases of cultural evolution towards increasing efficiency in non-human animals have led some authors to propose that other animals are also capable of cumulative cultural evolution, where traits become more refined and/or complex over time. Yet few comparative examples exist of traits increasing in complexity, and experimental tests remain scarce. In a previous study, we introduced a foraging innovation into replicate subpopulations of great tits, the ‘sliding-door puzzle’. Here, we track diffusion of a second ‘dial puzzle’, before introducing a two-step puzzle that combines both actions. We mapped social networks across two generations to ask if individuals could: (1) recombine socially-learned traits and (2) socially transmit a two-step trait. Our results show birds could recombine skills into more complex foraging behaviours, and naïve birds across both generations could learn the two-step trait. However, closer interrogation revealed that acquisition was not achieved entirely through social learning—rather, birds socially learned components before reconstructing full solutions asocially. As a consequence, singular cultural traditions failed to emerge, although subpopulations of birds shared preferences for a subset of behavioural variants. Our results show that while tits can socially learn complex foraging behaviours, these may need to be scaffolded by rewarding each component. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines’.

scholarly journals Taking the Historical-Social Dimension Seriously: A Reply to Bandini et al.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Noël Haidle ◽  
Oliver Schlaudt
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Fundamental Notion ◽  
Dynamic Interpretation

AbstractIn our recent article, "Where Does Cumulative Culture Begin? A Plea for a Sociologically Informed Perspective" (Haidle and Schlaudt in Biol Theory 15:161–174, 2020) we commented on a fundamental notion in current approaches to cultural evolution, the “zones of latent solutions” (henceforth ZLS), and proposed a modification of it, namely a social and dynamic interpretation of the latent solutions which were originally introduced within an individualistic framework and as static, genetically fixed entities. This modification seemed, and still seems, relevant to us and, in particular, more adequate for coping with the archaeological record. Bandini et al. (Biol Theory, 2021) rejected our proposition and deemed it unnecessary. In their critique, they focused on: (1) our reservations about an individualistic approach; (2) our objections to the presumption of fully naive individuals; and (3) our demand for an extended consideration of forms of social learning simpler than emulation and imitation. We will briefly reply to their critique in order to clarify some misunderstandings. However, the criticisms also show that we are at an impasse on certain crucial topics, such as the meaning of ZLS and the scope and nature of culture in general. Thus, we consider it necessary to make an additional effort to identify the conceptual roots which are at the very basis of the dissent with Bandini et al.

Group Selection in the Evolution of Religion: Genetic Evolution or Cultural Evolution?

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 235-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor Davis
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Group Selection ◽  
Genetic Group ◽  
Genetic Evolution ◽  
Psychological Traits ◽  
Religious Psychology ◽  
Religious Evolution ◽  
The Relationship

In the scientific literature on religious evolution, two competing theories appeal to group selection to explain the relationship between religious belief and altruism, or costly, prosocial behavior. Both theories agree that group selection plays an important role in cultural evolution, affecting psychological traits that individuals acquire through social learning. They disagree, however, about whether group selection has also played a role in genetic evolution, affecting traits that are inherited genetically. Recently, Jonathan Haidt has defended the most fully developed account based on genetic group selection, and I argue here that problems with this account reveal good reasons to doubt that genetic group selection has played any important role in human evolution at all. Thus, considering the role of group selection in religious evolution is important not just because of what it reveals about religious psychology and religious evolution, but also because of what it reveals about the role of group selection in human evolution more generally.

scholarly journals Collective intentionality and autism: Against the exclusion of the “social misfits”

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-148
Author(s):  
Kristina Lekic
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Criteria ◽  
Autistic Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Collective Intentionality ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Autistic Spectrum ◽  
Psychological States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Shed Light

The paper aims to shed light on Searle?s notion of collective intentionality (CI) as a primitive phenomenon shared by all humans. The latter could be problematic given that there are individuals who are unable to grasp collective intentionality and fully collaborate within the framework of ?we-intentionality?. Such is the case of individuals with autism, given that the lack of motivation and skills for sharing psychological states with others is one of the diagnostic criteria for Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The paper will argue that exclusion of individuals with autism is not a threat for Searle?s notion of collective intentionality, as the notion can be read as merely a biological disposition that all human beings share. Furthermore, the paper proposes the extension of Searle?s concept of CI so it can include behaviors of individuals who have the disposition towards CI, but which was not evolved through ontogenesis; namely, for individuals with autism.

scholarly journals Austrian-Italian Encounters: Notes on Some Films Produced Between Rome and Vienna in the 1930s

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Francesco Bono
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
European Cinema ◽  
History Of ◽  
Italian Film ◽  
Stylistic Influences ◽  
Corporate State ◽  
Shed Light

This essay deals with a number of Italian and Austrian films produced around the mid-1930s as a result of the cinematic cooperation that developed between Rome and Vienna at the time. The essay’s goal is to investigate a complex chapter in the history of Italian and Austrian film which has yet received little attention. The Austro-Italian cooperation in the field of film, which developed against the backdrop of the political alliance between Fascist Italy and Austria’s so-called Corporate State, involved some of the biggest names in Italian and Austrian cinema of the time, including Italian directors Carmine Gallone, Augusto Genina and Goffredo Alessandrini, Viennese screenwriter Walter Reisch, and Italian novelist Corrado Alvaro. In particular, the essay will consider the Italian film Casta Diva (1935) and its debt to one of the most famous Austrian productions of the 1930s, Willi Forst’s film Leise flehen meine Lieder (1933). Further films to be discussed include Tagebuch der Geliebten (1935), Una donna tra due mondi (1936), Opernring (1936), and Blumen aus Nizza (1936). Tagebuch der Geliebten was based on the diary of Russian painter Marie Bashkirtseff, who lived in Paris in the late 19th century. Una donna tra due mondi starred Italian diva Isa Miranda, Opernring Polish tenor Jan Kiepura, Blumen aus Nizza German singer Erna Sack.These films should be truly regarded as transnational productions, in which various cultural traditions and stylistic influences coalesced. By investigating them, this essay aims to shed light on a crucial period in the history of European cinema.

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.

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