Contemporary Evolutionary Theories Flashcards
For biological adaptation to occur, what conditions must be met?
- Large population
- Ample genetic variation in population
- Relatively slow decline in population
- Environmental change relatively slow
Is biological evolution speeding up or slowing down?
Speeding up
What are some of the things speeding up biological evolution?
- Population increase
- Spread of civilization (especially in the last 40,000)
- Cultural innovation (especially in the last 10,000)
Evoked culture
The idea that a particular cultural niche will activate one particular genetic program over others
Transmitted culture
Learning from more expert members of a culture
What are the three main theories in the Brown and Richardson article and what is the focus of each?
- Evolutionary psychology: internal proximate information processing mechanisms and ultimate function of behaviour
- Gene-culture co-evolution: external proximate social learning dynamics and ultimate function of behaviour
- Human behavioural ecology: ultimate function of behaviour
For evolutionary psychology, in what environment is the behaviour adaptive?
Environment of evolutionary adaptedness and current environment to the extent it matches the EEA
For gene-culture co-evolution, in what environment is the behaviour adaptive?
Environment in which particular cultural tradition developed
For human behavioural ecology, in what environment is the behaviour adaptive?
Current environment
For evolutionary psychology, what is the pace of adaptive behavioural response?
At the speed of genetic change
For gene-culture co-evolution, what is the pace of adaptive behavioural response?
At the speed of cultural change
For human behavioural ecology, what is the pace of adaptive behavioural response?
At the speed of individual learning
What did Hickman mean by shallow/planktonic culture?
Transient culture
What is an example of shallow/planktonic culture?
Memes
What did Hickman mean by deep/benthonic culture?
Stable culture
