Chapter #3: Cultural Evolution Flashcards
What are Proximate Causes?
those that have a direct and immediate relationship with their effects
Example of Proximate Causes
Spaniards had political organization and ship while the Incans were divided by small pox
What are Distal Causes?
initial differences that leads to effects over long periods of time, often through indirect relationships
Example of Distal Causes?
Incans vs. Spaniard
* Fertile crescent has unique collection of plants and animals for domestication
* Spread of disease
What is the purpose of the Rice vs. Wheat Story?
Ways of thinking can also be influenced by geography
* Rice growing population showed more interdependence
* What growing population were less interdependent
What is Evoked Culture?
the idea that all people, reglardes of where they are from, have a biologically based reprtoire of beavhiros that are accesible to them, and these behaviors are engaged for appropriate situation
Example of Evoked Culture?
- Protectiveness over offspring is only drawn out when they feel threatened
- habits of conformity, prevlenace of pathogens may require more rigid practices
- Some regions have practices that develops in order to reduce personal risk
What is Transmitted Culture?
people come to certain cultural practices through social learning, or by modeling the behavior of others who live near them
Example of Transmitted Culture?
- adopting the way a neighbor plants seeds because they grow foods succesfully
- can travel with people they they move to new environments
What does the story of Kings William Island demonstrate?
behaviors generate along generations to ensure survival
What is Natural Selection?
the evolutionary process that occurs when 3 certain conditions are present
What are the 3 conditions of Natural Selection?
1) Invidual variability exist among members of a species on certain traits
2) those traits are associated with different reproductive rates
3) those traits have a hereditary basis
T/F Copying errors are more common for cultural ideas
True
What ways to culture translate?
Both vertically (generation to generation) or horizontally (groups between groups)
What are factors that influence the spread of information?
1) Communicable Ideas
2) Useful Ideas
3) Emotional Ideas
4) Ideas that are sometines unexpected
What is Dynamic Social Impact Theory?
states that individuals influence each other through interacting
* leads to clusters of like-minded people who are seperated by geography/culture
* norms develop among those who communicate regualrly
What are Contemporary Legends?
Urban legends, fictional stories that are told in modern societies as though they are true
Example of Contemporary Legends?
- halloween candy being tampered with
- More likely spread when they are engaged with strong emotional reactions from people
What did the 12 story study show us?
- plausible ideas are more likely to spread with higher emotional reactions
What are Minimally Counterintuitive Ideas?
statements that are surprising and unusual in the sense that they violate our expectations, but are not outlandish
* religious text describes ordinary events with certain “counter intuitive ones”
How is the Brother’s Grimm related to Minimally Counterintuitive Ideas?
The most popular folk tales involved regular stories with 2 or 3 counterintuitivie elemtns
How are cultures becoming increasingly connected?
- formation of global culture
- popular culture and brands expand past national borders
- trends of increasing tribalism
What are some examples of increasing Tribalism?
- former Eastern Bloc countries into culturally distinct nations
- Movements for Scotland to withdraw from UK, Quebec from Canda
What characterizes Individualistic Cultures?
practices and customs that encourage individuals to pplace their own personal goals as priority
What characterizes a Collectivist Culture?
practices and customs that encoruage individualistic to place priority on collective goals - one’s ingroup
What is causing Americans to become more Individualistic?
- increasing financial and time pressures have competed with the ability to be socially engaged
- increasing suburbandization, spending more time in their cars and at home
- electronic entertainment leads to isolation and passive behavior
- increased SES status
- Increased secularism
What is the Flynn Effect?
people in current generation have higher IQ scores than the generation prior
* increased 5 to 25 per generation
What is Pluralistic Ignorance?
the tendency for people to collectively misinterpret the thoughts that underlie the behaviors of others
* all we can go on is how they behave or what they tell us
* ex: college students believing that peers are more interested in hooking up than they are
How does climate track cultural persistence?
- Relatively stable climate = maintain more cultural traditions as they are useful
- Fluctuating climate = old traditions may be useful
- Less function tended to show more evidence for cultural persistence and valuing tradition
