Culture Evolves
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Social Learning and the Maintenance of Cultural Variation: an Evolutionary Model and Data from East Africa
RICHARD MCELREATH Social Learning and the Maintenance of Cultural Variation: An Evolutionary Model and Data from East Africa ABSTRACT Human societies maintain between-group variation despite mixing of people and ideas. In order for variation to remain, migrants or their children must preferentially adopt local norms, customs, and beliefs. Yet the details of how cultural variation is maintained, despite mixing, remain unknown. This article addresses this problem by using a simple model of the evolution of cultural learning to interpret the results of a study of cultural variation in a small region of East Africa. I argue that the manner in which migrants of two diverse regions adapt to local beliefs and behavior depends on the costs and accuracy of learning in each domain. Observational studies are never definitive tests of any hypothesis, but these results suggest that conclusions about the significance of cultural learning for understanding individual attitudes and behavior depend strongly upon the domain of investigation. [Keywords: cultural evolution, social learning, East Africa, cultural variation] TUDY OF THE DIVERSITY of human adaptation, social differences in the physical and social environments indi- Sorganization, and belief has occupied more than a cen- viduals experience. Migrants (or their children) experience tury of anthropological description and explanation. Most a new economy, ecology and social world, and figure out social scientists are convinced that this diversity arises from how to behave. Social learning may still play a role in trans- a number of learning strategies, both simple and complex, mitting solutions to successive generations, but forms of in- and that sophisticated social learning in particular plays a dividual learning “evoke” (Tooby and Cosmides 1992) new key role in transmitting variation in behavior between gen- behavior when circumstances change, because of individu- erations. -
Cultural Learning Is Cultural
BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (1993) 16, 495-552 Printed in the United States of America Cultural learning Michael Tomasello Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322 Electronic mail: [email protected] Ann Cale Kruger Department of Educational Foundations, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303 Electronic mail: [email protected] Hilary Horn Ratner Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Ml 48202 Abstract: This target article presents a theory of human cultural learning. Cultural learning is identified with those instances of social learning in which intersubjectivity or perspective-taking plays a vital role, both in the original learning process and in the resulting cognitive product. Cultural learning manifests itself in three forms during human ontogeny: imitative learning, instructed learning, and collaborative learning - in that order. Evidence is provided that this progression arises from the developmental ordering of the underlying social-cognitive concepts and processes involved. Imitative learning relies on a concept of intentional agent and involves simple perspective-taking. Instructed learning relies on a concept of mental agent and involves alternating/coordinated perspective- taking (intersubjectivity). Collaborative learning relies on a concept of reflective agent and involves integrated perspective-taking (reflective intersubjectivity). A comparison of normal children, autistic children and wild and enculturated chimpanzees provides further evidence for these correlations -
Cultural Differentiation in Learning Styles: a Review of the Research
Cultural Differentiation in Learning Styles: A Review of the Research Robert Tripp, Ph.D. University of North Carolina Wilmington Abstract Students face a number of social and cultural challenges to success in the American higher education setting. Research on learning preferences, personality development, and learning style measurement has a rich history in psychological research, however, the refinement of the research to focus on cultural influences is relatively new and scattered at best. This review of standard literature presents research related to cultural differentiation in learning and learning preferences, and highlights the need for further work which explores the depth of influence of cultural components on learning preferences and pedagogical and programming strategies which successfully addresses this diversity. Introduction Research on learning preferences, personality development, and learning style measurement has a rich history in psychological research, including the writings of Freud and Jung (Hawk & Shah, 2007; Kolb, 1984; Kolb, Rubin, & MacIntyre, 1971; Swanson, 1995). However, the refinement of the research to focus on cultural influences is relatively new and has been inconsistent in regards to both time, depth of study, and findings (Entwhistles & Ramsden, 1983; Felder & Henriques, 1995; Glick, 1975; Gonzales & Roll, 1985; Gradman & Hanania, 1991; Hofstede, 1986; Lesser, Fifer, & Clark, 1965; Witkin, 1976). The following presents a review of seminal research related to cultural differentiation in learning and learning preferences. Literature Review Banks (2004) suggested the scarcity of literature on cultural influences on learning is a result of the complexity of the issue; class mobility and ethnic culture entwine themselves around the issue of learning characteristics in minority students (p. -
Contributions from Evolutionary Anthropology
Innovation in Cultural Systems Contributions from Evolutionary Anthropology edited by Michael J. O’Brien and Stephen J. Shennan The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2010 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in Times Roman by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Innovation in cultural systems : contributions from evolutionary anthropology / edited by Michael J. O’Brien and Stephen J. Shennan. p. cm.—(Vienna series in theoretical biology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-01333-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Physical anthropology. 2. Human evolution. 3. Social evolution. 4. Human beings–Origin. 5. Technological innovations. I. O’Brien, Michael J. II. Shennan, Stephen J. GN60.I56 2010 599.9–dc22 2009009084 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 Issues in Anthropological Studies of Innovation Michael J. O’Brien and Stephen J. Shennan It would be diffi cult to fi nd a topic in anthropology that has played as central a role as innovation in attempts to explain why and how human behavior changes. -
What's in a Meme?
What’s in a Meme? The Development of the Meme as a Unit of Culture Garry Chick The Pennsylvania State University University Park, Pennsylvania, USA Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association as part of the session, “Perceiving Culture: Unit Definition in Cultural Anthropology,” November 21, 1999. Please do not quote without permission. An earlier version of this paper is in press in Social Science Today (in Russian). Abstract Over the past 150 years numerous labels have been applied to the “parts” of culture. Some of these, including “themes,” “configurations,” “complexes,” and “patterns” are macro level. Micro level terms include “ideas,” “beliefs,” “values,” “rules,” “principles,” “symbols,” “concepts,” and a few others. The macro level labels often appear to be particular arrangements of micro level units. But which of these, if any, is the (or, an) operational unit of cultural transmission, diffusion, and evolution? Recently proposed units of cultural transmission typically derive from analogies made between cultural and biological evolution. Even though the unit of selection in biological evolution (i.e., the gene, the individual, or the group) is still under debate, the “meme,” originally suggested by Dawkins (1976) as a cultural analog of the gene, has been “selected” by many as a viable unit of culture. A “science of memes” (“memetics”) has been proposed (Lynch 1996) and numerous web sites devoted to the meme exist on the internet. This paper will trace the development of the meme and, in the process, critically address its utility as a unit of culture. 2 The whole history of science shows that advance depends upon going beyond “common sense” to abstractions that reveal unobvious relations and common properties of isolatable aspects of phenomena. -
Enculturation HUMANS ENGAGE in CULTURAL LEARNING
Outline Humans Engage in Cultural Learning Enculturation and Socialization Enculturation Parenting and Families Culture and Peers Culture and Day Care Chapter 3 Culture and Education Religion Putting it all together Humans have ability of perspective-taking This ability allows humans to engage in HUMANS ENGAGE IN cultural learning CULTURAL LEARNING Cultural learning: learning from others & through others Humans learn by 1) mimicking adults 2) internalizing knowledge of other person through social cognition Culture is uniquely learned by humans Socialization: Process by which people learn rules and patterns of society ENCULTURATION AND Enculturation: Products of socialization process (psychological aspects of culture that that SOCIALIZATION become internalized through development) Socialization/Enculturation Agent: people, institutions and organizations that ensure socialization and enculturation • Ex) Parents, siblings, other family, friends, friends, school, church Parenting goals and beliefs Goals for children's development based on caregiving context and culturally valued PARENTS AND FAMILIES behaviors Goals lead to variation in parenting behaviors • Gusii and American mothers (LeVine et ai., 1996) • Gusii mothers : have parenting goal of protecting infants; to achieve this goal, engage in soothing behaviors and keep infants close • American mothers: have parenting goal of active engagement and social exchange ; engage in stimulation and conversation with infants Parenting goals and beliefs Parenting Styles Parenting Characteristics -
Cultural Learning Redux
Child Development, May/June 2016, Volume 87, Number 3, Pages 643–653 Cultural Learning Redux Michael Tomasello Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology M. Tomasello, A. Kruger, and H. Ratner (1993) proposed a theory of cultural learning comprising imitative learning, instructed learning, and collaborative learning. Empirical and theoretical advances in the past 20 years suggest modifications to the theory; for example, children do not just imitate but overimitate in order to identify and affiliate with others in their cultural group, children learn from pedagogy not just episodic facts but the generic structure of their cultural worlds, and children collaboratively co-construct with those in their culture normative rules for doing things. In all, human children do not just culturally learn useful instru- mental activities and information, they conform to the normative expectations of the cultural group and even contribute themselves to the creation of such normative expectations. In contrast to their nearest great ape relatives, who support the cumulative cultural evolution of human all live in the general vicinity of the equator, artifacts and practices over historical time (the so- humans have spread out all over the globe. To deal called “ratchet effect”). with everything from the Arctic to the tropics, For individuals who understand one another as humans have evolved a highly flexible suite of intentional (or mental) agents, there can be three sociocognitive skills that enable them to create, in basic types of cultural learning. When the basic concert with others in their cultural groups, a structure of the interaction is that the learner variety of techniques for coping with whatever intends to learn something by observing an actor challenges may arise in their local environment, (who may not even know she is being observed), from building igloos to tracking large game. -
Get It: the Power of Cultural Learning, 2009
Get It: The Power of Cultural Learning Feedback and recommendations from a public consultation by the Culture and Learning Consortium Arts Council England Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Clore Duffield Foundation Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Foyle Foundation Heritage Lottery Fund Museums, Libraries and Archives Council Northern Rock Foundation Paul Hamlyn Foundation We shouldn’t be wondering whether children need art and music and stories and poems any more than gardeners wonder whether plants need water. The effect of deprivation is the same in both cases. The effect is less instant and dramatic in the case of children who know no culture, but just as deadly in the long run. We’re not talking about economic benefit or competitive advantage or maximising employment choices: we’re talking about life and death – the life of the mind and the heart, the murder of the soul. Philip Pullman Contents Culture and Learning Consortium Do it, watch it, experience it, love it, hate Foreword 2 it, dismiss it, create it, be transformed by Preface 3 it, join it, admire it, learn it, steal it, make Executive Summary 4 Ten Key Recommendations 6 millions from it, get comfort from it, be perverted by it, be repelled by it, be Introduction 12 . Background 4 astounded by it, want it … but ignore it? . Focus 5 The Foyle Foundation Surely everything or anything except the A new approach to latter. Children have to be introduced to culture and learning 16 the arts in every form. The scope 8 . The potential 0 Griff Rhys Jones 3. The challenges 4. A shared approach 26 Areas for advocacy and action with recommendations 28 . -
Culture in Humans and Other Animals
Biol Philos (2013) 28:457–479 DOI 10.1007/s10539-012-9347-x Culture in humans and other animals Grant Ramsey Received: 12 March 2012 / Accepted: 30 September 2012 / Published online: 16 October 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012 Abstract The study of animal culture is a flourishing field, with culture being recorded in a wide range of taxa, including non-human primates, birds, cetaceans, and rodents. In spite of this research, however, the concept of culture itself remains elusive. There is no universally assented to concept of culture, and there is debate over the connection between culture and related concepts like tradition and social learning. Furthermore, it is not clear whether culture in humans and culture in non- human animals is really the same thing, or merely loose analogues that go by the same name. The purpose of this paper is to explicate core desiderata for a concept of culture and then to construct a concept that meets these desiderata. The paper then applies this concept in both humans and non-human animals. Keywords Behavior Á Culture Á Epigenetic Á Evolution Á Innovation Á Social learning Á Tradition Introduction The study of culture in animals1 is a burgeoning area of research. Biologists, psychologists, and biological anthropologists are increasingly interested in the study of culture and are routinely describing the behavior of animals—from rats to sperm whales—in terms of culture (Laland and Galef 2009). Additionally, the field of 1 To avoid repeated uses of ‘non-human’, I will use ‘animal’ in what follows, not as picking out the Anamalia, but as denoting all non-human animals. -
An Examination of Culture Knowledge: a Study of L2 Teachers’ and Teacher Educators’ Beliefs and Practices
4 Spring 2011 An Examination of Culture Knowledge: A Study of L2 Teachers’ and Teacher Educators’ Beliefs and Practices David R. Byrd Weber State University Anne Cummings Hlas University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire John Watzke University of Portland Maria Fernanda Montes Valencia Saint Louis University Abstract: Historically, culture has not been emphasized as much as linguistic fea- tures in the teaching of second languages, but the introduction of the National Standards has provided an opportunity for a shift in this trend. This study surveyed 415 world language teachers and 64 teacher educators about the extent to which the culture stan- dard is a focus of teaching and the motivators and barriers in maintaining culture knowledge. Using descriptive statistical analysis, survey results suggest that both groups share some concerns, motivations, and barriers to teaching culture, but they also differ in significant areas. The article concludes with some potential implications for teacher education programs as well as suggestions for continued professional develop- ment for teachers related to culture knowledge. Key words: culture, professional development, Standards, survey results, teacher education David R. Byrd (PhD, University of Iowa) is Assistant Professor of Education at Weber State University, Ogden, Utah. Anne Cummings Hlas (PhD, University of Iowa) is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. John Watzke (PhD, University of Iowa) is Professor of Education and Dean of the School of Education at the University of Portland, Oregon. Maria Fernanda Montes Valencia (ABD, Saint Louis University) is a doctoral student in Educational Studies at Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri. Foreign Language Annals Á vol. -
Lumsden-Wilson Theory of Gene Culture Coevolution (Human Sociobiology/Ethnography/Epigenetic Rules/Social Development) JOSEPH S
Proc. NatL Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 78, No. 6, pp. 3976-3979, June 1981 Population Biology Lumsden-Wilson theory of gene culture coevolution (human sociobiology/ethnography/epigenetic rules/social development) JOSEPH S. ALPER* AND ROBERT V. LANGEt *Department ofChemistry, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts 02125; and tDepartment of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02154 Communicated by S. E. Luria, March 9, 1981 ABSTRACT A critique is presented of the Lumsden-Wilson ASSUMPTIONS OF THE THEORY theory [Lumsden, C. J. & Wilson, E. 0. (1980) Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA 77, 4382-4386] of the transmission of cultural traits. An LW propose that we consider one cultural trait (called a "cul- analysis of the underlying assumptions and the mathematical na- turgen") at a time and study the mechanisms by which distri- ture of the theory clarifies its essentially reductionist and deter- butions of alternative forms of the trait in a society are estab- minist qualities. The mathematical functions governing the tran- lished. The central assumption of the LW theory is that there sition probability that an individual member of a group of a are genes that code for the rules that determine the probability specified size will switch from one trait to an alternative form of of changing from one alternative form of the trait to another. that trait is assumed to be genetically controlled although the sin- There is absolutely no evidence that any genes ofthis type exist gle independent variable of this function, the number of individ- and, as we shall argue more fully below, LW's claim that there uals characterized by each of the two forms of the trait, is envi- is evidence for the existence of such genes is invalid. -
Acculturation As a Developmental Pathway David Lackland Sam University of Bergen, Norway, [email protected]
Unit 8 Migration and Acculturation Article 6 Subunit 1 Acculturation and Adapting to Other Cultures 4-1-2003 Acculturation as a Developmental Pathway David Lackland Sam University of Bergen, Norway, [email protected] Brit Oppedal Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway, [email protected] Recommended Citation Sam, D. L., & Oppedal, B. (2003). Acculturation as a Developmental Pathway. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1072 This Online Readings in Psychology and Culture Article is brought to you for free and open access (provided uses are educational in nature)by IACCP and ScholarWorks@GVSU. Copyright © 2003 International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. All Rights Reserved. ISBN 978-0-9845627-0-1 Acculturation as a Developmental Pathway Abstract This chapter looks at some developmental issues in the acculturation of children and adolescents with immigrant backgrounds. In addition to raising critical questions about this line of research, the chapter examines some underlying assumptions and their implications for the study of acculturation in younger people. It is argued that ambiguities in the final outcome of acculturation and differences in acculturation experiences of adults and children make it necessary to bring developmental perspectives closer into this line of research among children and adolescents in immigrant families. Against this background a modified developmental contextual model is suggested as an alternate perspective to the understanding of the acculturation