Centre for social learning and cognitive evolution, school of psychology, university of st. The only fault i can find in the book is the partly surprising internal reductionism. How darwinian theory can explain human culture and synthesize the social sciences alex mesoudi university of chicago press chicago and london. Invited visiting fellow, sackler institute for advanced study, university of tel aviv, israel, june 2015. The observation that suicides sometimes cluster in space andor time has led to suggestions that these clusters are caused by the social learning of suiciderelated behaviours, or copycat suicides. Alex mesoudi the experimental study of human cultural evolution. Human behaviour and cultural evolution group hubceg. Learning strategies and cultural evolution during the. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading cultural evolution. Charles darwin changed the course of scientific thinking by showing how evolution accounts for the stunning diversity an. Cultural evolution comes of age cultural evolution. Cultural evolution represents a body of theory and findings premised on the notions that, i, human cultural change constitutes a darwinian evolutionary process that shares key characteristics with but is not identical in details to genetic evolution. Cultural evolution of emotional expression in 50 years of.
Covering a wide range of topics, including fads, public policy, the spread of religion, and herd behavior in markets, alex mesoudi shows that human culture is itself an evolutionary process that exhibits the key darwinian mechanisms of variation, competition, and inheritance. You will join the human biological and cultural evolution. Alex mesoudi, the cultural evolution of crosscultural. Pdf towards a unified science of cultural evolution. Evolution, culture, and what it means to be human duration. Sackler colloquium on the extension of biology through culture held at the beckman center in irvine, ca on november 1516. Mesoudi forcefully argues that the theory of cultural evolution is the solution to this problem. He convincingly argues for the interplay between experimental, field and simulation studies. Cultural evolution is the theory that cultural change in humans and other species can be described as a darwinian evolutionary process, and consequently that many of the concepts, tools and methods used by biologists to study biological evolution can be equally profitably applied to study cultural change mesoudi 2011a. Mesoudi, a and ondudii, mj 2008 the cultural transmission of great basin projectilepoint technology i. Wider application of these insights, however, has been hampered by traditional. Alex mesoudi author alex mesoudi is a lecturer in psychology at queen mary, university of london. Keywords cultural attraction cultural attractors cultural evolution cultural transmission introduction cultural evolution is a vibrant, interdisciplinary, and increasingly productive scienti. Towards a unified science of cultural evolution ucl discovery.
Drawing a parallel with genetic evolution, this field focuses on how cultural variation is transmitted. Centre for social learning and cognitive evolution and school of psychology. A bias for social information in human cultural transmission. Learning strategies and cultural evolution during the palaeolithic alex mesoudi, kenichi aoki eds. Members of the human behaviour and cultural evolution group hubceg at the university of exeters cornwall campus apply evolutionary theory and methods to study human behaviour, cognition, life histories, cultural evolution and social complexity.
Mesoudi proposes that we need a darwinian synthesis for the social sciences mirroring the neodarwinian synthesis that took place in the natural sciences in the 1930s and the 1940s. Covering a wide range of topics, including fads, public policy, the spread of religion, and herd. How darwinian theory can explain human culture and synthesize the social sciences. Both positions will be held at the university of exeters cornwall campus and supervised by dr alex mesoudi and dr matthias gobel. Centre for applied ethics, university of british columbia. Towards a unified science of cultural evolution citeseerx. Alex mesoudi is an experimental psychologist working in the. How darwinian theory can explain human culture and synthesize the social sciences by alex mesoudi university of chicago press, 2011 available at amazon us and amazon canada while much of modern behavioral and social science treats individuals as autonomous agents, it is absolutely clear that the way we think and act is. Dall,1 and alex thornton it is often assumed in experiments and models that social learning abilities how often individuals copy others. Charles darwin changed the course of scientific thinking by showing how evolution accounts for the stunning diversity and biological complexity of life on earth. Another is that cultural evolution is not neodarwinian. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. I have developed models to try to understand the evolution of cumulative culture from cultural traditions and social learning precursors kempe et al. I am a professor of cultural evolution in the human behaviour and cultural evolution group at the university of exeters cornwall campus, uk i study cultural evolution, the idea that cultural change changes in beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, skills, and other socially transmitted traits constitutes a darwinian evolutionary process that is.
Understanding agriculture within the frameworks of cumulative. Correspondence should be addressed to alex mesoudi, department of anthropology, university of missouri, columbia, mo 65211, usa e. He conducts research into human cultural evolution and social learning. Why cultural evolution is real and what it is carcinisation. We conduct research in cultural evolution currie, mesoudi, lamba, thornton, human. Professor alex mesoudi professor of cultural evolution 026 253712 sersf 1. Covering a wide range of topics, including fads, public policy, the spread of religion, and herd behavior in. Alex mesoudi the experimental study of human cultural. Science and engineering research support facility sersf. Prospects for a science of cultural evolution alex mesoudia,1 ahuman biological and cultural evolution group, department of biosciences, university of exeter, penryn, cornwall tr10 9fe, united kingdom edited by marcus w. Laland, journalthe behavioral and brain sciences, year2006, volume29 4, pages 32947. This talk was presented at the national academy of sciences arthur m. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. If you want to read just one whole book about cultural evolution, mesoudi is engaging and thorough, and only about 40% more technical than the present article.
Pdf the cultural evolution of technology and science. How darwinian theory can explain human culture and synthesize the social sciences alex mesoudi charles darwin changed the course of scientific thinking by showing how evolution accounts for the stunning diversity and biological complexity of life on earth. Since its emergence around 12,000 years ago, agriculture has transformed our species, other species, and the planet on which we all live. Cultural evolution theory boyd and richerson, 1985. How darwinian theory can explain human culture and synthesize the social sciences by alex mesoudi.
Here i provide an overview of the theory of cultural evolution, including its intellectual history, major theoretical tenets and methods, key findings, and prominent criticisms and controversies. Leading scholars report on current research that demonstrates the central role of cultural evolution in explaining human behavior. Henrich, joseph and boyd, robert and derex, maxime and kline, michelle and mesoudi, alex and muthukrishna, michael and powell, adam and shennan, stephen and thomas, mark, appendix to understanding cumulative cultural evolution. If we are all cultural darwinians whats the fuss about. Apr 22, 2015 the last two decades have seen an explosion in research analysing cultural change as a darwinian evolutionary process. Cultural evolution is the idea that cultural change constitutes an evolutionary process. The evolution of individual and cultural variation in. Alex mesoudi is an experimental psychologist working in the field, and has previously published numerous papers and a phd thesis on the topic. Appendix to understanding cumulative cultural evolution. Alex mesoudi is a lecturer in psychology at queen mary, university of london. We suggest that human culture exhibits key darwinian evolutionary properties, and argue that the structure of a science of cultural evolution should share fundamental features with the structure of the science of biological evolution.
That is true, but it probably goes for organic evolution as well. How darwinian theory can explain human culture and synthesize the. The foundation of cultural evolution was laid in the late 20th century with populationgenetic style models of cultural microevolution, and the use of phylogenetic methods to reconstruct cultural macroevolution. Alex mesoudi is an associate professor of cultural evolution at the university of exeter cornwall campus, uk. Rethinking proximate causation and development in religious evolution. Cultural change constitutes an evolutionary process because cultural traits vary, they are inherited via social learning from individual to individual, and some cultural traits are.
Mesoudi 2011 provides a series of concepts that allows such an endeavour. Understanding agriculture within the frameworks of. This contrasts with the progressive, unilinear theories of cultural evolution. Cultural evolution anthropology oxford bibliographies. Alex mesoudi is reader in anthropology at durham university, uk. Cultural evolution is the theory that cultural change in humans and other species can be described as a. Wider application of these insights, however, has been. This is a great book about the important topic of cultural evolution.
He uses a combination of lab experiments and theoretical models to explore the individuallevel processes who copies what, from whom and when that underlie broad patterns of cultural change. Over the past few decades, a growing body of research has emerged from a variety of disciplines to highlight the importance of cultural evolution in understanding human behavior. Smith institute of plant sciences and genetics in agriculture, faculty of agricultural, food and environmental. He conducts research into human cultural evolution.
Trends in ecology and evolution robert boyd alex mesoudi has written a valuable book. The last two decades have seen an explosion in research analysing cultural change as a darwinian evolutionary process. Psychology to study cultural evolution alex mesoudi university of british columbia abstract cultural psychology, and other social sciences e. A lecture by alex mesoudi in cultural evolution seminar in tartu, estonia. Recently, there has also been increased interest in the social sciences in how darwinian theory can explain human culture. Point clusters are clusters of suicides localised in both time and space, and have been attributed to direct social learning from nearby individuals. The foundation of cultural evolution was laid in the. Treasurer and steering committee member, cultural evolution society 2016present former treasurer and steering committee member, european and human behaviour and evolution association ehbea section editor, plos one. How darwinian theory can explain human culture and synthesize the social sciences kindle edition by mesoudi, alex.
Review the multiple roles of cultural transmission. Cultural evolution ebook by alex mesoudi 9780226520452. This approach incorporates cultural change and variation into a. Culture is defined as socially transmitted information. Cultural evolution, then, shares many traits with biological evolution.
Transmission chain studies of content biases in cultural evolution. Cultural evolution by alex mesoudi overdrive rakuten. Recombination of existing variants into new ones is frequently regarded as another important process in cumulative cultural evolution mesoudi and thornton, 2018. Read cultural evolution how darwinian theory can explain human culture and synthesize the social sciences by alex mesoudi available from rakuten kobo.
Learning strategies and cultural evolution during the palaeolithic by alex mesoudi and publisher springer. The cultural evolution of cross cultural variation in cognition and. Cultural change constitutes an evolutionary process because cultural traits vary, they are inherited via social learning from individual to individual, and some cultural traits are more likely to be passed on than others. Contents preface vii acknowledgments xv 1 a cultural species 1 2 cultural evolution 25 3 cultural microevolution 55.
1405 1591 318 130 414 1476 887 459 1365 715 921 826 1094 160 1119 1477 1361 1268 1284 1427 335 1381 868 751 787 848 336 1644 1578 121 271 1044 144 922 532 1562 1634 1499 702 906 806 1443 1302 576 495 1218 1168 373 83