Cultural Evolution

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Cultural Evolution......Page 9
1 Introduction: “Small Consequences of One General Law”......Page 11
Towards a Better Understanding of Culture......Page 14
Part I The Inheritance of Cultural Information......Page 19
2 What Is Information?......Page 21
Information Theory, Biology and Culture......Page 22
Associative Learning and Innate Knowledge......Page 23
Discrete Representational Knowledge......Page 26
Prescriptive versus Descriptive Information......Page 31
Genes: First among Causal Equals?......Page 33
3 How Is Information Inherited?......Page 35
Genetic Inheritance Systems......Page 36
Epigenetic Inheritance Systems......Page 38
Ecological Inheritance Systems......Page 40
Developmental Inheritance Systems......Page 43
Behavioural Inheritance Systems......Page 44
Genetically Mediated Inheritance......Page 46
Linguistic Inheritance Systems......Page 47
Cultural Inheritance......Page 49
Does Evolution Really Need Discrete Representation?......Page 50
Part II The Inheritance of Cultural Information: Natural Language......Page 57
4 Natural Language and Culture: The Biological Building Blocks......Page 59
Representation......Page 60
Imitation......Page 61
Physiology......Page 65
Sociality and Cooperation......Page 67
Theory of Mind......Page 70
Cultural Preadaptations......Page 71
5 How Did Natural Language Evolve?......Page 72
Instinctive Communication......Page 73
Critical Period......Page 74
Communication versus Interpretation......Page 76
Communication versus Representation......Page 77
Language Evolution: Biological or Cultural?......Page 79
Compositionality......Page 83
Conclusions......Page 85
Language and Cognition: Emotions......Page 88
Language and Cognition: Language Learning......Page 90
Language and Cognition: Spatial Cognition......Page 91
Language and Culture......Page 92
Contact Linguistics......Page 94
Metarepresentation......Page 95
Part III The Inheritance of Cultural Information: Artefactual Language......Page 97
7 How Did Artefactual Language Evolve?......Page 99
The Biology of Artefactual Representation......Page 100
The Power of Metarepresentation......Page 102
Proto-Writing and Social Context......Page 105
From Proto-Writing to Writing......Page 106
Writing: Communication and Representation......Page 111
Speech: Communication and Representation......Page 114
Longevity and Fecundity......Page 117
Capacity: Swap Space......Page 120
Capacity: Scaffolding......Page 121
Accuracy: Interpretation versus Expression......Page 123
Music......Page 124
Dialects of Artefactual Languages......Page 127
Detachment......Page 130
Education, Technology and Development......Page 132
Functional Links......Page 133
9 Money: An Artefactual Language......Page 136
Money and Barter......Page 137
The Medium of Exchange......Page 138
The Measurement of Value......Page 140
The Derivation of Value......Page 142
Credit Money......Page 143
Fiat Money......Page 145
The Functional Relationship......Page 146
Moneys Cultural Evolution......Page 147
Different Forms of Money......Page 150
Money: Value, Exchange and Trust......Page 154
The Effects of Currency on Trade......Page 156
Money and Biology......Page 158
Money Size Illusion......Page 159
Money in Society, Money in Relationships......Page 161
Money as a Gift......Page 163
Eurovision: A Diversion......Page 165
Money and Status......Page 169
The Survival of the Joneses......Page 171
Part IV The Receivers of Cultural Information......Page 177
11 How Does Human Diversity Affect Cultural Evolution?......Page 179
The Metarepresentation Spectrum......Page 180
Metarepresentation and Cultural Transmission......Page 181
Metarepresentation, Genetic Fitness and Artefactual Languages......Page 183
Nature and Nurture......Page 187
Metarepresentation and Education......Page 189
Cultural Agents and Cultural Diversity......Page 190
Part V The Expression of Cultural Information......Page 193
12 Aspects of the Cultural Ecology......Page 195
Cultural Units......Page 196
Cultural Receivers......Page 198
Environmental Factors......Page 201
Example 1: A Brief History of the Mobile Phone......Page 202
Example 2: VHS and Betamax......Page 203
Technological Evolution as the Expression of Evolving Cultural Information......Page 204
Cultural Clusters......Page 206
Polythetic Classes and Family Resemblance......Page 207
Biological Taxonomy......Page 210
Organism versus Gene Taxonomy......Page 211
Reticulate Prokaryotic Evolution......Page 212
Viral Taxonomy......Page 213
Species versus Ecological Clusters......Page 214
Cultural Inheritance Mechanisms......Page 216
Cultural Phylogenies......Page 218
The Mechanisms of Cultural Isolation......Page 219
Carving Culture at Its Joints......Page 225
Cultural Evolution......Page 230
Heritable Information in Nature......Page 231
The Mechanisms of Cultural Inheritance......Page 232
Social versus Functional Links......Page 234
Cultural Taxonomy......Page 236
The Origin of Culture......Page 237
Appendix: What about Memetics?......Page 241
Acknowledgements......Page 245
Bibliography......Page 249
Index......Page 273