Evolutionary Psychology And Cultural Transmission Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6), Ashleigh Anderson, Susie Boersma and Timothy Devereaux

What is Acquired Culture? Acquired culture is representations which seem to be triggered by episodes of social interaction, communication in particular. Example: Cultural input from cultural elders and peers trigger behaviors and values, such as, when it is appropriate to tell a joke. Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

Boyer’s Research Programs Dynamics of meme replication – Culture has separate units (memes) with some having direct and others having indirect mutations. They also have different probabilities of replication, therefore, culture contains separate evolutionary systems Cognitive conduits for culture – Cognitive capacities that make it possible for humans to acquire cultural representations. The ability to extract information from their social environment in terms of past practices, techniques, rituals, norms, and habits. Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

Boyer’s Research Programs cont. Cognitive predisposition – This program focuses on why humans have the cultural capacities they have and not others. Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

MEME DYNAMICS & COEVOLUTION The coevolution models aim to describe the interaction between genetic and cultural inheritance and the special properties of the “cultural inheritance track” Many researchers have developed the “coevolution” theories, in particular, Durham (1991) empirically described the cultural transmission of memes in four ways: Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

Cultural Transmission A meme is a unit of information that (a) actually guides behavior, (b) is susceptible of hierarchical integration, and (c) is differentially transmitted as coherent units Memes are replicated through social transmission, which produces in the mind of the cultural learner a copy of the meme represented by the cultural elder Cultural patterns are the outcome of differential meme replication The plasticity of mind allows for important cultural variation Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

Cultural Transmission Boyer (2000) suggests that the research on cultural and genetic inheritance run parallel to one another, without much effect on each other. Durham’s research (1991) also suggests that genetic and cultural inheritance could conflict or cooperate with each other. Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

COGNITION CONDUIT APPROACH Culture is defined as “communication between minds” Cultural acquisition requires a certain amount of “mind reading” capacities, otherwise, know as the “ratchet effect” Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

Cultural Transmission Cultural Transmission theory applied to the social learning theory and tool use in order to illustrate mind reading capacities or “ratchet effect” Example: When an individual is learning something new, they do not just direct their attention to the location of another individual’s activity; rather, they actually attempt to see a situation the way the other sees it. Social interaction promotes the transmission of culture and learning Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

Cognitive Predispositions Theory In order for an organism to extract information from the environment, it must be sensitive to cues about where that information can be found In order for this to happen, Boyer (2000) explains five cognitive adaptations with the following properties: – Cognitive adaptations are domain specific – plausible relevance to fitness in the environment of evolutionary adaptation – outcome of gradual changes and have evolved over a large number of generations – They develop as the result of universal maturational programs – Their effects can be demonstrated experimentally Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

Boyer’s Logic Study Subjects were asked to answer questions based on logical theories. Using numbers and letters for these questions the subjects did not do well. However, when the test questions were altered to give them cultural contexts the subjects were able to answer the questions correctly. Boyer (2000) believed that each culture has their own view of attractiveness, but he found that there are also universals when it comes to what is attractive in a mate. Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

RESULTS “Evoked Culture”-adaptive responses that are universal, but activation depends on cues that are found in the social and natural environment. “Acquired Culture”-has no bearing on fitness. Evolutionary psychology and cultural anthropology Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

Critical Review Boyer’s jargon is often hard to understand losing the meaning of his point throughout the article. His points may have been made clearer with more examples of cultural transmission. It would have been interesting to know how the information age will effect cultural transmission. Now that people can communicate among many cultures, how will that effect future cultural transmission. Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),

Any Questions? Boyer, P. (2000). Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Transmission. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(6),