Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology

Week 11

Evolution & Culture

Evolutionary Psychology Week 11 - Evolution & Culture

Running Order

The Standard Social Science Model

The argument for ‘evolutionary sociology’

The Adapted Mind Approach

Metaculture

Evoked culture

Epidemiological culture

Evolutionary explanation of art

Evolutionary PsychologyWeek 11 - Evolution & Culture

Aim

To introduce you to a variety of theories of culture and social structure inspired by Darwinian viewpoints.

Reward

You should be better able to assess the prospects of an incipient ‘evolutionary sociology’.


The Standard Social Science Model: Mind Psychic unity: The claim that humans are more similar in terms of

biological endowment than they are dissimilar. It follows that patterns of within-group similarity and between-group differences show culture to be the formative mode.

Variation begins at birth. This follows from 1. “Nature” in the raw form of the new born is overridden and overwritten by culture. That nature is overridden demonstrates that human biological and genetic endowment is insignificant.

The Wild Child. This follows from 2. Individuals, undirected by cultural rules, would not spontaneously exhibit organised behaviour or recognisable emotions.

Conclusion: Homini Tabula Rasa. Human nature is defined by its capacity to be enculturated. Its most universal feature is its flexibility and variability.


The Standard Social Science Model: Culture• The causal arrow. This follows from homini tabula rasa. Given that

the mind acquires organisation from a ready organised social world, the cause of organised behaviour and mental content is without and not within the individual.

• Omnis cultura ex cultura: The claim that cultural ‘facts’ as consequences, or effects, are invariably preceded by cultural antecedents, or causes. Given this relation, culture is (at the very least from a methodological point of view) independent of human nature.

• Conclusion: Given that culture is the cause of behaviour and mental content, it is culture that must be studied if an account is to be given of its effects.

The general argument of evolutionary sociology• Natural and/or Sexual Selection should be discernible in cognitive

functioning.• Culture is enabled by cognitive functions

– i.e. where there is no thought there is no culture.

• Therefore the biological imperatives selected for by NS/SS should be discernible in culture– i.e. culture should be about what we are about: it should reflect

what is important from an evolutionary point of view.



What is meant by ‘culture’ or ‘society’?

Rules & rituals– Of exchange and/or organisation.

Stories about the past, present and future– Myths, histories, prophecy.

Tools– Artefacts made to perform a task.

Art – Artefacts made to depict and/or represent.


The Adapted Mind Approach: 3 forms of culture

Metaculture Culture• The enduring dispositions and goals of sapien.• The universality allows for any kind of cultural unity and

transmission.

Evoked Culture• What happens when the adapted mind is place in variable contexts?• The similarities and differences in environment explain within group

similarities and between group differences.

Epidemiological Culture • The habits we adopt: We adopt them because the tried and tested is

less expensive to learn than trial and error.• Innovations & novelty are introduced by few & copied by many.


Evolutionary explanation of art

What is new is old

Soap Operas– gossip and social knowledge.

Novels & films: five plots– love, sex, social threat, revenge, money.

Decomposition of music– language, auditory scene analysis, emotional calls, tempo &

motor control.

Decomposition of pictorial art– shape, colour, primary cues, invocation.


Memetics: Viruses of the Mind

In what way are memes like genes? • Genetic fitness and Memetic fitness.• Variation – heredity – differential

transmission.• Polymorphism and memeplexes

– Classical concepts and prototypes.

• Infectiousness, susceptibility & social climate.

• Memes are not particulate and ‘clean’.• Memes can blend & are Lamarckian.


Recap

• EP argues that the SSSM is flawed because humans have native endowment.

• EP extends the link from genes to minds to genes to culture.• The Adaptive Mind approach argues that cultures are group level

adaptations.• The Adapted mind approach argues that all transient forms of

culture can be seen as metacultural.• Memetics argues ideas are also subject to selection.

Evolutionary Psychology

Documents

Transcript of Evolutionary Psychology