Week 9 Lecture 8 - cultural evolution

Question 1

What is culture?

Answer 1

beliefs, skills, attitudes, languages, knowledge
socially transmitted information

Question 2

What is culture not?

Answer 2

• info acquired genetically
• info learned individually

Question 3

What is “a culture”?

Answer 3

a group of people who share culturally transmitted info

Question 4

do cultural differences reduce to genetic differences?

Answer 4

no

Question 5

What did Margret Mead argue?

Answer 5

cultures are almost infinitely variable and lacking universals

Question 6

What are some cultural universals?

Answer 6

• burial rituals
• sex role differentiation
• incest taboos
• food taboos
• dance
• metaphorical speech
• number system
• tool-making
• colour classification

Question 7

What is evoked culture?

Answer 7

cultural practices that arise due to environmentally contingent mental modules (Tooby and Cosmides)

Question 8

What are the 2 elements of evoked culture?

Answer 8

• a universal underlying mechanism
• environmental differences in activating these

Question 9

What is transmitted culture?

Answer 9

• imitation, modelling, idea diffusion
• “normal” culture

Question 10

Is genetic evolution Lamarckian?

Answer 10

no it is non-Lamarckian

Question 11

Is cultural evolution Lamarckian?

Answer 11

yes

Question 12

Do humans adapt to new environments culturally or genetically

Answer 12

culturally –> other species adapt genetically

Question 13

can learning track environmental change faster than genetic adaptation?

Answer 13

yes

Question 14

are genes “blind” to within-generational change?

Answer 14

yes

Question 15

can culture be adaptive if it is cumulative?

Answer 15

yes

Question 16

How can culture be cumulative?

Answer 16

each generation of people contribute to the population’s knowledge and technology rather than each generation starting from scratch

Question 17

is acquiring culture cumulatively unique to humans?

Answer 17

yes potentially

Question 18

Can cultural traits also be maladaptive?

Answer 18

yes e.g., rock climbing, tik tok challenges

Question 19

If culture was Darwinian what must it exhibit?

Answer 19

• variability –> e.g., between languages, religions
• selection –> selection against irregular verbs (are either dropped or regularised)
• heritability –> similar to genetic inheritance in some ways

Question 20

In what ways do the parallels between cultural and genetic evolution not work?

Answer 20

• speed of inheritance (culturally can happen within a generation)
• cultural evolution changes through design

Question 21

What might memes act as?

Answer 21

hypothetical units of cultural transmission

biological replicator = gene
cultural replicator = meme

However is nothing more than a metaphor as what constitutes as a meme is not concrete

Question 22

Are all memes adaptive?

Answer 22

• no can be like viruses
• may not be adaptive but may be by-products of credulity and a need to learn from others

Question 23

Is transmission of memes perfect?

Answer 23

no consider gossip or urban myths

Question 24

What is gene-culture coevolution (dual inheritance theory)?

Answer 24

• human behaviour and mind is a product of both genetic and cultural inheritance
• human body has changed little but behaviour has changed
• genes affect culture
• culture can effect genes

Question 25

What are the biases in social learning?

Answer 25

• content bias
• model-based bias
• frequency-dependent bias
• no bias: random copying / cultural drift