Cultural evolution Flashcards
What is culture?
socially transmitted information
The info is capable of affecting individual’s behaviour that are acquire from other members of their species
What did Franz Boas challenge in the Victorian era?
Challenged the view that genes and evolution solely determined population differences
What is the SSSM, Margaret Mead.
But what cultural universals are there?
Cultures are infinitely variable and lacking universals.
Examples: religion, language, punishment, emotions, family, sex role differentiation, incest taboo, burial rituals
What is evoked culture
cultural practices arising from environmental constraints
What is transmitted culture
normalised culture through imitation, cutlure
Genetic evolution as non-Lamarckian
Genetic evolution passes on biological information via sex cells, can’t inherit acquired characteristics (i.e. kids will still be born with 2 legs even if you lose one)
Culture as Lamarckian
Inheritance of acquired characteristics
Why is culture adaptive?
Learning advantageous?
We are able to adapt to new environments in a fast and flexible way (we adapt culturally to environments otherwise not meant for us, those animals must physically adapt but we dont need to)
> learning tracks environmental changes faster than genetic adaptation (i.e. learning from others through observation is easier and less costly, genetic adaptation takes transmittance through generation first before the adaptation comes into effect)
Human’s have cumulative culture, what does this mean?
building up of knowledge and modifying successive generations culture .
Social learners can acquire behaviours/knowledge that they couldnt have invented alone
We teach skill/knowledge (education system) in order they were developed I.e. algebra in school, relativity at uni
> we can learn powerful amounts of knowledge in a relatively short space of time
Criteria that cultural evolution must meet to be Darwinian
Criteria is:
variability, heritability, selection (surplus offspring & non random survival and reproduction)
selection example- words in language (irregular and regular verbs- can select out complicated irregulars)
Expand on O’Brien et al’s construction of inheritance trees
He drew parallels of inheritance trees (i.e. for an animal i.e. he did it for finches) as well as cultural products i.e. portable music players - walkmans selected out when iPod came around)
What did Wilson (1978) propose about our gene pool?
Our gene pool sets genetic constraints (sets limitations a ‘leash’) on what we can physically do i.e cant hold breath for 2 days
Defintion of memes according to Dawkins
hypothetical units of cultural transmission.
Many copies made
Unclear what determines what a meme is, is it a word, phonemes etc
A ‘replicator’ is an entity that has what two F’s and longevity.
Mind parasites?
Fidelity (accurately copies), fecundity (makes many copies)
Biological replicator- gene
Cultural replicator- meme
Certain memes are like ‘mind parasites/viruses’ i.e. earworms from a song, religion, superstitions
Transmission is largely inaccurate compared to genetics
What’s gene-cutlure coevolution?
(other name for it?
dual inheritance theory, proposes that human behaviour is product of genetic and cultural inheritance
Give an example of how they work in tandem- human and one non-human
Lactose tolerance due to domestication of cattle for milk, selection for lactose tolerance
(example of culture affecting genes)
Sperm whales- specific strategy (tails in or out when protecting (head out most effective- those traits get selected for)/circling around
Either can effect the other-
genes affect culture through producing social learners
culture affects genes by changing gene frequency in a population
Pace of cultural change
If environment changes too rapidly, cultural transmission would be of less use
If it changes too slowly, genetic evolution could take over
example of right pace- climate change in Pleistocene (ice age) led to huge climate changes
Human culture proved highly adaptive to live in the new environment
Niche construction is what? examples?
Species can alter their environment, feedback loop with natural selection.
Changing the selective pressures for their living conditions i.e. beavers build and are well adapted to the dams they build, humans create processed food (easier to consume, takes less energy)
Social learning and imitation
Social learners can out perform individual learners through imitation and copying, adaptive for you but not the person you’re copying from.
But we dont copy all behaviours we see others do, its not adaptive
What is content biases
Some traits are more likely to be learnt/remembered than other traits i.e. its catchier, more adaptive, succcesful actions that work
What are model-based biases
traits preferentially coped form people who are succesfu/prestigious/old
Frequency-dependent biases
copying traits that are commonly seen (conformity) or rare (anti-conformity)
No bias- random copying/cultural drift
sometimes copying is completely random, but there is usually reason for it
Copying via social learning can happen in which 3 ways, in whch society is either favoured?
Obliquely- from unrelated elders, favoured in rapidly changing environments where natural selection is weak (i.e.industrialised societies)
Vertical- transmission from family/genetic inheritance
(favoured in stable environments where natural selection is strong i.e. hunter-gatherers
Horizontal- transmission from peers (especially fro modern/new ideas that family/elders may not know)
Name mechanisms for learning from each other:
1) social influence- contagion (A’s act is a stimulus), can be either from exposure similar learning env) or social support (B motivates A)
2) Social learning-
stimulus enhacement- orienting behaviour to location/object
observational conditioning- learning circumstance for a behaviour
3) goal emulation- learning the goal
4) imitation- learning the actual form of a behaviour
Do apes ape? What did they do with a puzzle box that young kids didnt?
Apes were able to imitate where necessary but distinguished goal emulation later (unnecessary action dropped), which kids failed to do
Functional definition of learning.
chimps dont teach well
A modifies their behaviour in the presence of a naive individual with no immediate benefit but the intent of changing their behaviour
Cultural intelligence hypothesis (Hermann 2007)
Cognitive differences between humans, chimps and orangutans which led to the hypothesis.
Humans have socio-cultural cognitive skills (i.e. social learning, theory of mind) distinguish humans from their primates significantly. Greatly outperformed primates in the social domain
