Knowledge Tree
cultural evolution
Also known as: cultural evolutionary process
Facts (18)
Sources
Evolutionary Psychology | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu 8 facts
perspectiveSusan Blackmore holds an optimistic view regarding the analogy between cultural and biological evolution.
claimCultural evolution is a process in which different memes are differentially transmitted from individual to individual.
referenceLuca Cavalli-Sforza and Marcus Feldman published 'Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach' in 1981, which applies quantitative methods to the study of cultural evolution.
claimGenes influence cultural evolution by establishing psychological predispositions that bias what individuals are able to learn, teach, or imitate.
claimBoyd and Richerson (2000) assert that cultural evolution differs from genetic evolution because culture relies on teaching, imitation, and social learning rather than direct replication, is not restricted to parent-offspring transmission, and is not necessarily particulate or random.
claimMemetics attempts to explain cultural characteristics and processes by postulating a process of cultural evolution that is analogous to, but largely independent of, biological evolution.
claimCritics of memetics, such as Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson, argue that memes are unlikely to be sufficiently similar to genes to warrant the claim that cultural evolution is analogous to biological evolution.
perspectiveProponents of gene-culture coevolution argue that while culture is a Darwinian force, there is no substantial analogy between cultural and biological evolution.
Psychedelics, Sociality, and Human Evolution frontiersin.org 4 facts
referenceHeyes and Frith published 'The cultural evolution of mind reading' in the journal Science in 2014.
referenceNorenzayan et al. (2016) published 'The cultural evolution of prosocial religions' in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, exploring the development of religion.
claimThe cultural evolution of shamanism is a subject of study.
referenceRicherson and Christiansen (2013) edited 'Cultural Evolution: Society, Technology, Language, and Religion', a collection of works examining the mechanisms of cultural evolution.
Evolutionary psychology - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 3 facts
referenceSheldon Solomon and others authored 'Human Awareness of Mortality and the Evolution of Culture' in 2004, which examines the relationship between mortality awareness and cultural evolution.
claimFoundational research in evolutionary psychology is categorized by adaptive problems including survival, mating, parenting, family and kinship, interactions with non-kin, and cultural evolution.
claimDual inheritance theory, developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, posits that human behavior is the product of two interacting evolutionary processes: genetic evolution and cultural evolution.
The Role of Language in Shaping Social Identity and Cultural ... aithor.com Apr 24, 2025 1 fact
claimCultural hybridization is an unstoppable process that shapes cultural evolution.
The Mechanisms of Psychedelic Visionary Experiences - Frontiers frontiersin.org Sep 27, 2017 1 fact
claimHominin evolution involved an expansion of intentional ritualized alterations of consciousness that enhanced access to internal experiences, which propelled the emergence of the symbolic mind and accelerated cultural evolution.
The cross-cultural study of mind and behaviour: a word of caution link.springer.com Apr 8, 2022 1 fact
claimCecilia Heyes posits that mindreading is the result of a cultural evolutionary process that is common to all human societies.