Author:
Author:
Alex Mesoudi
Alex Mesoudi
Queen Mary, University of London, London, UK
Biological and Experimental Psychology Group, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK
Search for other papers by Alex Mesoudi in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Biological and Experimental Psychology Group, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK
Search for other papers by Alex Mesoudi in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
A “Darwinian Renaissance” in the social sciences and humanities cannot occur until evolutionary theory can successfully explain rapid and cumulative cultural change. Here I review empirical evidence that much of human behaviour is culturally determined, emphasising the need to incorporate culture into evolutionary analyses of human behaviour. I also review theoretical work which shows that culture is genetically adaptive, belying any simplistic gene-culture dichotomy. Finally, I show how recent work analysing culture as an evolutionary system is beginning to answer the kinds of questions that are of interest to social scientists and humanities scholars. These include phylogenetic reconstructions of the historical relationships between languages, manuscripts, social customs and artifacts, and experimental simulations of the microevolutionary processes underlying patterns of cultural macroevolution.
ProCite
RefWorks
Reference Manager
BibTeX
Zotero
EndNote
-
D. F. Aberle 1961 Matrilineal descent in cross-cultural perspective D. M. Schneider K. Gough Matrilineal Kinship University of California Press Berkeley, CA 655 730.
-
K. Aoki J. Y. Wakano M. W. Feldman 2005 The emergence of social learning in a temporally changing environment: A theoretical model Current Anthropology 46 334 340.
-
S. J. Arnold M. E. Pfrender A. G. Jones 2001 The adaptive landscape as a conceptual bridge between micro- and macroevolution Genetica 112–113 9 32.
-
Q. D. Atkinson A. Meade C. Venditti S. J. Greenhill M. Pagel 2008 Languages evolve in punctuational bursts Science 319 588.
-
A. C. Barbrook C. J. Howe N. Blake P. Robinson 1998 The phylogeny of the Canterbury Tales Nature 394 839 839.
-
G. Basalla 1988 The Evolution of Technology Cambridge University Press Cambridge.
-
R. L. Bettinger J. Eerkens 1999 Point typologies, cultural transmission, and the spread of bow-and-arrow technology in the prehistoric Great Basin American Antiquity 64 231 242.
-
C. Blais R. E. Jack C. Scheepers D. Fiset R. Caldara 2008 Culture shapes how we look at faces PLOS One 3 e3022.
-
F. Boas 1940 Race, Language and Culture Macmillan New York.
-
R. Boyd P. J. Richerson 1985 Culture and the Evolutionary Process University of Chicago Press Chicago, IL.
-
R. Boyd P. J. Richerson 1988 An evolutionary model of social learning: The effects of spatial and temporal variation T. Zentall B. G. Galef Social Learning Erlbaum Hillsdale, NJ 29 48.
-
R. Boyd P. J. Richerson 1995 Why does culture increase human adaptability? Ethology and Sociobiology 16 125 143.
-
R. Boyd P. J. Richerson 1996 Why culture is common, but cultural evolution is rare Proceedings of The British Academy 88 77 93.
-
R. L. Carroll 2000 Towards a new evolutionary synthesis Trends in Ecology & Evolution 15 27 32.
-
C. K. Catchpole P. J. B. Slater 1995 Bird Song: Biological Themes and Variations Cambridge University Press Cambridge.
-
L. L. Cavalli-Sforza M. W. Feldman 1981 Cultural Transmission and Eevolution Princeton University Press Princeton.
-
J. Cheshier R. L. Kelly 2006 Projectile point shape and durability: The effect of thickness: length American Antiquity 71 353 363.
-
G. Csibra G. Gergely 2009 Natural pedagogy Trends in Cognitive Sciences 13 148 153.
-
C. Darwin 2003 The Descent of Man Gibson Square London.
-
J. M. Diamond 2000 Taiwan's gift to the world Nature 403 709.
-
S. W. Gangestad M. G. Haselton D. M. Buss 2006 Evolutionary foundations of cultural variation: Evoked culture and mate preferences Psychological Inquiry 17 75 95.
-
S. J. Gould N. Eldredge 1977 Punctuated equilibria: The tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered Paleobiology 3 115 151.
-
R. D. Gray Q. D. Atkinson 2003 Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin Nature 426 435 439.
-
R. D. Gray F. M. Jordan 2000 Language trees support the express-train sequence of Austronesian expansion Nature 405 1052 1055.
-
C. R. Guglielmino C. Viganotti B. Hewlett L. L. Cavalli-Sforza 1995 Cultural variation in Africa Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 92 585 589.
-
S. J. Heine 2008 Cultural Psychology Norton New York.
-
S. J. Heine D. R. Lehman 1997 Culture, dissonance, and self-affirmation Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23 389.
-
S. J. Heine A. Norenzayan 2006 Toward a psychological science for a cultural species Perspectives on Psychological Science 1 251 269.
-
J. Henrich 2001 Cultural transmission and the diffusion of innovations American Anthropologist 103 992 1013.
-
J. Henrich R. Boyd S. Bowles C. Camerer E. Fehr H. Gintis et al.2005 “Economic man” in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28 795 855.
-
J. Henrich F. J. Gil White 2001 The evolution of prestige Evolution and Human Behavior 22 165 196.
-
J. Henrich S. J. Heine A. Norenzayan 2010 The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33 61 135.
-
J. Henrich R. Mcelreath A. Barr J. Ensminger C. Barrett A. Bolyanatz et al.2006 Costly punishment across human societies Science 312 1767 1770.
-
E. Herrmann J. Call M. V. Hernandez-Lloreda B. Hare M. Tomasello 2007 Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: The cultural intelligence hypothesis Science 317 1360.
-
B. Hewlett A. De Silvestri C. R. Guglielmino 2002 Semes and genes in Africa Current Anthropology 43 313 321.
-
C. J. Holden R. Mace 2003 Spread of cattle led to the loss of matrilineal descent in Africa: A coevolutionary analysis Proceedings of the Royal Society B 270 2425 2433.
-
V. Horner A. Whiten 2005 Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens) Animal Cognition 8 164 181.
-
C. J. Howe A. C. Barbrook M. Spencer P. Robinson B. Bordalejo L. R. Mooney 2001 Manuscript evolution Trends in Genetics 17 147 152.
-
T. Kameda D. Nakanishi 2003 Does social/cultural learning increase human adaptability? Rogers’ question revisited Evolution and Human Behavior 24 242 260.
-
J. Kendal L. A. Giraldeau K. Laland 2009 The evolution of social learning rules: Payoff-biased and frequency-dependent biased transmission Journal of Theoretical Biology 260 210 219.
-
K. N. Laland 2004 Social learning strategies Learning and Behavior 32 4 14.
-
K. Lorenz 1969 Innate bases of learning K. Pribram On the Biology of Learning Harcourt New York 13 91.
-
D. E. Lyons A. G. Young F. C. Keil 2007 The hidden structure of overimitation Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 19751 19756.
-
R. Mace M. D. Pagel 1994 The comparative method in anthropology Current Anthropology 35 549 564.
-
T. Masuda R. E. Nisbett 2001 Attending holistically versus analytically Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 81 922 934.
-
E. Mayr W. Provine 1980 The Evolutionary Synthesis Harvard University Press Cambridge, MA.
-
A. McMahon R. Mcmahon 2003 Finding families: Quantitative methods in language classification Transactions of the Philological Society 101 7 55.
-
A. Mesoudi 2007 A Darwinian theory of cultural evolution can promote an evolutionary synthesis for the social sciences Biological Theory 2 263 275.
-
A. Mesoudi 2008 An experimental simulation of the ‘copy-successful-individuals’ cultural learning strategy: Adaptive landscapes, producer-scrounger dynamics and informational access costs Evolution and Human Behavior 29 350 363.
-
A. Mesoudi M. J. O'Brien 2008 The cultural transmission of Great Basin projectile point technology I: An experimental simulation American Antiquity 73 3 28.
-
A. Mesoudi A. Whiten K. N. Laland 2004 Is human cultural evolution Darwinian? Evidence reviewed from the perspective of The Origin of Species Evolution 58 1 11.
-
A. Mesoudi A. Whiten K. N. Laland 2006 Towards a unified science of cultural evolution Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 329 383.
-
M. W. Morris K. Peng 1994 Culture and cause: American and Chinese attributions for social and physical events Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67 949 949.
-
D. Nettle 2009 Ecological influences on human behavioural diversity: A review of recent findings Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24 618 624.
-
M. J. O'Brien J. Darwent R. L. Lyman 2001 Cladistics is useful for reconstructing archaeological phylogenies: Palaeoindian points from the southeastern United States Journal of Archaeological Science 28 1115 1136.
-
S. J. Oppenheimer M. Richards 2001 Polynesian origins: Slow boat to Melanesia? Nature 410 166 167.
-
M. Pagel 2009 Human language as a culturally transmitted replicator Nature Reviews Genetics 10 405 415.
-
G. Perry R. Mace 2010 The lack of acceptance of evolutionary approaches to human behaviour Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 8 105 125.
-
H. Plotkin 1995 Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge Penguin London.
-
A. Powell S. Shennan M. G. Thomas 2009 Late pleistocene demography and the appearance of modern human behavior Science 324 1298 1301.
-
C. Renfrew 1990 Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins Cambridge University Press Cambridge, UK.
-
T. W. Rice J. L. Feldman 1997 Civic culture and democracy from Europe to America Journal of Politics 59 1143 1172.
-
P. J. Richerson R. Boyd 2005 Not by Genes Alone University of Chicago Press Chicago.
-
A. R. Rogers 1988 Does biology constrain culture? American Anthropologist 90 819 831.
-
E. Rogers 1995 The Diffusion of Innovations Free Press New York.
| Journal of Evolutionary Psychology | |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Size | |
| Year of Foundation |
2007 (2003) |
| Publication Programme |
changed title |
| Volumes per Year |
|
| Issues per Year |
|
| Founder | Akadémiai Kiadó |
| Founder's Address |
H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245. |
| Publisher | Akadémiai Kiadó |
| Publisher's Address |
H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245. |
| Responsible Publisher |
Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó |
| ISSN | 1789-2082 (Print) |
| ISSN | 2060-5587 (Online) |
Monthly Content Usage
| Abstract Views | Full Text Views | PDF Downloads | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2024 | 42 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2024 | 65 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2025 | 43 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2025 | 46 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 35 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2025 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2025 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Author:
Author:
A Darwinian approach to meaning
A review of The Origins of Meaning: Language in the Light of Evolution by James R. Hurford. Oxford University Press (2007), 352 pages, Price: £21.00 ($37.32), ISBN: 0199207855 (hardback).
Author:
Copyright Akadémiai Kiadó AKJournals is the trademark of Akadémiai Kiadó's journal publishing business branch.
Powered by PubFactory