(1) The Nature of Culture Flashcards
Four names for the main theory
- Cultural Evolutionary Theory
- Darwinian Culture Theory
- Dual Inheritance Theory (DIT)
- Gene-culture co-evolutionary theory
What are the three core ingredients of a Darwinian Model? What is the end result?
Variation, Competition, Selection
End Result: Differential Transmission (some are transmitted, others are not)
Functional / Group Model
Cultural Evolutionary Theory
Functional / Individual Model
Evolutionary Psychology
Structural / Group Model
Human evolutionary studies (ie. archaeology, physical anthropology)
Structural / Individual Model
Cognitive Attraction Theory
What are the two big focuses in cultural evolution?
- Material Culture (Objects): cumulative improvement
- Social Cooperation (People): Social organization
Prestige Bias
Follow the leaders!
Conformity Bias
Follow the followers!
Four Suggested Definitions of Culture (Mesoudi Ch1)
- One-to-one social learning
- Cultural traditions in groups
- Cumulative Culture
- Institutions and Norms
What is One-to-One Social Learning?
Where one individual acquires information from a second individual as a result of exposure to their behaviour.
(AKA observational / imitative learning.)
What are Cultural Traditions in Groups?
Where members of one group exhibit one behaviour, while members of another group exhibit different behaviour; and where these differences are explained by social learning rather than genetic differences.
What is Cumulative Culture?
Group-typical behaviours that lead to improvements in a product or practice over generations. The gradual accumulation of successive modifications. Ratcheting.
“We stand on the shoulders of giants!”
What are institutions and norms?
Socially learned information capable of affecting individual behaviour. Political, economic, social…
Variation in Cultural Evolution
Unlike biological variation, which occurs with random mutations, variation in cultural evolution often arises through guided processes.
More rapid as a result of this.
