1. The Evolution of Culture

2. “Culture” has had 150 different definitions Four major classes of cultural definitions  Rules for behaviour or conduct  Ideas or concepts (e.g., myths)  Material artefacts (e.g., tools)  Literature, art, music Distinction between imitation and individual learning Defining Culture

3. Defining the Problem Why study culture? How is culture transmitted?  Vertically, obliquely, horizontally Why is culture transmitted?  More efficient means of transmitting knowledge across generations  Memetic parasitization  Unique, acquired fitness indicators

4. Assumptions of Cultural Research Brown (1991) outlines several misleading propositions encountered in cultural anthropology:  Nature and culture are distinct phenomena  Nature is manifested in instincts whereas culture is manifested in learning  The mind at birth is tabula rasa  There are few universals, and they are unimportant

5. Cultural Transmission (1) The paradox of conformity Imitators Learners Frequency of Imitation Fitness

6. If basic “imitators” and “learners” cannot reach a mutual equilibrium, how is this behaviour maintained in the population?  Extra privileges given to learners by imitators  Selective imitation Payoff-biased imitation Conformist transmission Cultural Transmission (2)

7. Memes and Neutral Mutations Kimura (1979) proposed that if a genetic trait has a neutral effect on selection, it is relatively free to vary randomly (genetic drift)  Perhaps random variation in neutral memes accounts for cultural variability What about cases when memes increase biological fitness costs?  Under certain conditions, memetic evolution can still take place

8. The Adaptiveness of Culture Although there is considerable debate on the matter, it does appear that some cultural phenomena enhance fitness  Is culture adaptive? Example: the Rendille & the Honey-guide (Indicator indicator)

9. Do genetic predispositions have an effect on cultural evolution? Example: the evolution of the teddy bear  Originally, teddy bears were quite “bear- like”  Over history, however, bear snouts have become less pronounced and foreheads larger, an outcome of adult predispositions for neoteny Guided Cultural Evolution

10. Do non-human animals have culture? Exchange between researchers:  “There is cultural transmission of information in fish and it is clear that the choice of mating behavior and mating partner are of cultural derivation”  “Can you define ‘culture’? My sociological understanding of the term probably excludes fish.” Culture in Non-Human Animals

11. “Economic Man” Across Cultures A recent cross-cultural study of 15 societies demonstrates cultural variation in game playing  At the group, rather than individual, level  Predicted by market integration and higher cooperative payoffs in social life (66% of variation among societies) These differences are not obtained when comparing university students across cultures

12. The Universal People Brown (1991) has proposed the concept of the Universal people  A “description of every people or of people in general”  They share in common Sophisticated language Basic emotions Recognition of individuals

13. The Wrap-Up Defining culture Misleading assumptions of cross-cultural research Cultural transmission Neutral mutations Adaptiveness of culture Culture in non-human animals

14. Things to Come The evolution of  Art  Music  Morality