Week 2: Last Lecture & Summary Notes Flashcards
(3) Key points of today’s lecture
§ Culture is often neglected in classic evolutionary models (primarily on gene and environmental influences) § Culture can be studied with similar approaches as biological evolution § Cultural and biological evolution can interact (marry gene and cultural models that use similar tools/methodologies)
Important Figures in Culture Evolution Theory:
§ Marc Feldman
§ Luca Cavalli-Sforza
§ Robert Boyd
§ Peter Richerson
*These authors focus on cultural expression and have an anthropology background.
Edward Taylor
§ The grandfather of anthropology § His issue is that he was an evolutionary perfectionist and believed that cultures moved on a linear path from primate to evolved. This perspective tends to compare groups of people (i.e., race/ethnicity/gender) as being more evolved (better than) others. § In Primitive Culture (1871) he wrote “[it is] both possible and desirable to eliminate considerations of hereditary varieties of races of men, and to treat mankind as homogeneous in nature, though placed in different grades of civilization."
Sociobiology:
§ Dawkins book on the selfish gene which views humans as survival robots designed to pass on information through selfish genes also included a chapter on transmitting non- genetic information (cultural).
§ Memology; you can create distinct passels of cultural information you can agree on its meaning. They move the same as genetic information.
§ Susan Blackmore expands on these ideas in her book the meme machine. Meme = cultural units has not quite caught on in psychology yet because it is hard to define these pockets/units of culture being passed on across generations (harder than identifying genetic transmission).
The problem of culture:
§ Not central idea in early
psychology.
§ Behaviourists discredited the
influence of culture.
§ Hofstede (1960-1970s) value
dimensions, was a global
study that looked at whether
countries (cultures) varied on
their values (i.e.,
individualism-collectivism,
power-distance, masculinity-
femineity etc.). He paved the
way for looking at culture as
dimensions or specific
qualities people hold rather
than as variations in people's
beliefs, rituals or behaviour
(made it quantifiable!).
§ Culture = Collective
programming of the mind…Cultural Evolution Figures:
§ Cultural information can be transmitted vertically, horizontally or oblique § Technology is a nice “meme” unit of cultural information relative to shared beliefs a cultural group may share on free will. § The cultural transmission of cultural knowledge on technology or tools is synonymous to Darwinian thinking of evolution: variation in bow types (variation), some bows are better/more adaptive to current environment (differential fitness), individuals learn how to make bows from others (inheritance). § Cumulative culture where it is passed on, added to and allows for technological advancement and the development of complex tools.
Cultural Psychology focuses on…
§ Emphasis on socially transmitted knowledge (phenotype transmission; religion, pottery or bows) and acknowledge/indifferent to the role of the environment and genes.
Key Elements of Cultural Evolutionary Psychology:
§ Cultural traits = adaptive § Cultural changes = evolutionary process (valid form of transmission synonymous to genetic transmission) § Cultural traits are devised, § Spread according to utility & attractiveness, compatibility with existing traits, § Diversify through a cumulative process of elaboration & refinement (cumulative culture; technology and complex culture).
The Rachet Effect (cumulative culture)
• A simple trait evolves to a complex trait • Similar to Lamarckian theory (use/disuse; leads to greater complexity over time) • Axe to chainsaw • Telephone to Mobile phones • Satellites • Information accumulates and cannot be done by one person; not needing to understand it ALL to be able to add to it.
Ritual Human Sacrifices
*Cumulative effect on physical and nonphysical culture (cultural beliefs; religion and costly signaling)
§ Religious beliefs on human sacrifices is not a common practice in modern society. § Phylogenetic tree to see how cultural groups are related to one another. This allows us to map traits, how human sacrifice rituals and social stratification (strong social hierarchies) fit onto the trees. Q: Do cultural groups who engage in human sacrifice's develop stronger social hierarchies? Do they reinforce power-dynamics within society? § Egalitarianism, moderate or high social stratification and rituals of human sacrifice were compared across cultural groups on the phylogenic tree. They found that societies that were egalitarian and human sacrifice over time became more socially stratified. Using human sacrifice to uphold social stratification. When sacrifices stopped societies fell back into egalitarianism.
*There is a pulotu database on
pacific religious beliefs and
rituals.
Retraction Note: complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history
§ data problem. § people claimed that cultures do not need religion of an omnipotent god to evolve into large-scale societies. § This is not true; it was based on old ethnography societies and resulted in poor conclusions. § Warped perceptions from ancestors who wrote information, coded ethnography notes no evidence of presence of high god as no high god (absence is an absence of evidence). § Religion increases cooperation and increase from small-scale to large scale societies!
Is it possible to bring all ideas together?
(A) Evolutionary Psychology
(B) Cultural Evolutionary Psychology
= Gene-Culture Coevolution
Gene-Culture Coevolution § Charles Lumsden & Edward Wilson: o Proposed intense mathematical modelling and the Dual inheritance theory- 1. Gene-Phenotype 2. Phenotype-Phenotype o Two valid methods/mechanisms of inheritance of variation that act independently and interact. o The development of technology provides us with the tools which allow us to test these complex models.
Foundational figures of Gene-Culture Coevolution:
§ Marc Feldman
§ Luca Cavalli-Sforza
§ Robert Boyd
§ Peter Richerson
*people who were interested in culture evolution were also interested in merging it with
genetic evolution!
A classic example
Lactose Tolerance:
o The introduction of dairy farming led to variations of people being able to digest lactose, these alleles increase in frequency in the population, but a small proportion of people can not digest lactose.
o Spread out from Africa into areas where cattle were, have extra calories for longer periods of time if you can drink their milk rather than kill them. This led to cultural changes in agricultural practices. Led to genetic variants that allow for lactose to be digested.
o Genetic variation for lactose tolerance would have been irrelevant if cultural changes in agricultural practices didn’t change the selection pressures in their environment!
o Similarly, dairy farming wouldn’t have been such an important cultural trait if genetic variation didn’t occur to allow us to digest milk!
o Milk intake increased with lactose tolerance.
*Convergent adaption: Four independent mutations for lactose tolerance near the lactase gene (LCT)
Three plausible reasons for lactase tolerance (is good)
§ Calcium absorption hypothesis (for strong bones) § Arid environment hypothesis (vitamin d absorption; relevant in areas with little sun; being thirsty sucks; water from milk to stay hydrated) § Pastoralist hypothesis (only relevant in areas where you can ranch cows)
*co-evolution of gene and culture allows for humans to fill niches! Genetic and culture
evolution interact and can be studied together to provide novel insights into human
behaviour.
