(1) The Nature of Culture Flashcards
(23 cards)
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.
Selection in Cultural Evolution
Cultural selection drives cultural evolution. It involves competition between cultural variants.
Inheritance in Cultural Evolution
Inheritance occurs by the transmission of cultural information through social learning.
Vertical transmission?
Parent to Offspring (Intergenerational)
Much more conservative and slower than horizontal transmission.
Horizontal transmission?
Peer to peer (same generation)
Can also be one-to-many via mass media. Social media has greatly accelerated horizontal transmission.
Cultural variants can be exported to other cultures, or imported from other cultures (via colonialism, migration, and media).
Oblique transmission?
Intergenerational, but not parent to offspring (ie. teacher and student)
Cognitive Attractors
Ingrained perceptual preferences for organizing cultural information in certain ways (ie. born with certain preferences)
Evoked Culture (EvPsych)
Culture comes from genetically encoded response biases that are triggered by different ecological conditions.
Mesoudi’s Definition of Culture
Information that is acquired from other individuals via social transmission mechanisms, such as imitation, teaching, or language.
(Note: This ignore material culture!)
