Social scientists have long remarked that there is consistency in what people believe and value o... more Social scientists have long remarked that there is consistency in what people believe and value over time, especially within definable groups. Anthropologists call this body of information “culture .” There are (at least) three causal mechanisms that can explain the recurrence of cultural traits . Recurrence can occur through (1) strong individual learning biases ; (2) population-level normalizing effects on what is adopted; and (3) replicator-based inheritance . Each of these mechanisms is favored by a particular brand of evolutionary theorizing about human society. Evolutionary psychologists (EPs) advocate the first option, which emphasizes the ability of universal structures in the evolved mind to come up with the same responses to environmental conditions time and again. What explains cultural consistency over time, then, is evolved psychological decision-making processes in the face of common environmental challenges. A group I call “cultural selectionists ” (CSs) prefer the second option, which notes that even poor social learning abilities can still produce consistently shared features at the level of the group if there are widely shared psychological preferences for traits or the types of individuals from whom to acquire culture. The third option, based on replication of the same information from generation to generation, is the memetic position. In this scenario, the cultural features that keep popping up are the phenotypic expressions of memes , or cultural replicators, disseminating through the population via social communication or mediated transmission via information machines such as computer networks. This variety in the possible explanations for cultural evolution is not generally recognized nor do advocates of one position generally acknowledge the validity of others. But I will argue in this chapter that all three of these possibilities are viable in our present state of ignorance about the means through which cultural traits reappear each generation; any one of them may account for a particular aspect of cultural inheritance .
in press, Shennan volume Cultural transmission is essentially the idea that beliefs and values ar... more in press, Shennan volume Cultural transmission is essentially the idea that beliefs and values are passed from generation to generation. The question I would like to address in this paper is how does this happen? In particular, what is the mechanism? In the absence of a deep understanding of the process by which people come to have similar ideas, a variety of metaphors have been used. The purpose of this paper is to outline the options for understanding cultural transmission as a process and to analyse their consistency with what we know about cultural change and communication more generally. I conclude with a view which I hope is an advance over the existing alternatives. My proposal makes clearer the role of artefacts in mediating many kinds of communication, and takes account of the recent evolution of evolutionary technologynetworks of machines which exhibit the qualities of information inheritance, selection and mutation -as an important phenomenon that interacts with cultural change.
ABSTRACT The phenogenotype, a routinely co-occuring combination of a cultural and genetic trait, ... more ABSTRACT The phenogenotype, a routinely co-occuring combination of a cultural and genetic trait, is unlikely to survive over time because of the potentially varying evolutionary pressures upon cultural as opposed to genetic traits. This is because the production and evaluation of cultural inputs will themselves be based on information previously acquired culturally. As a result, treating both cultural and genetic inheritance in a single recursion may be problematic.
Human technology is difficult to understand because it is so complex. However, human technology e... more Human technology is difficult to understand because it is so complex. However, human technology evolved from the simpler technologies of other species. Comparison with these other technologies should illuminate why human technology is distinct. Some birds and primates make tools, or simple technological objects whose function is closely related to their form. Humans, on the other hand, make machines-relatively complex objects whose functionality derives from the interaction of parts with respect to one another (e.g. a bow and arrow). Making machines requires a cognitive advance called 'second-order instrumentality', or the ability to invest in the production of an object that only has utility as part of, or for the making of, other objects. This ability enabled human societies to develop specialised forms of organised production, which in turn allowed the stock of artefacts to diversify and accumulate, whereas the technological repertoires of other species remain at a relatively constant level of complexity. several anonymous referees for very helpful comments on earlier drafts. Thanks also to Clive Lawson for the invitation to think about these issues in the first place.
Technology is a concept rife with confusion. Here, I argue that technologies can be distinguished... more Technology is a concept rife with confusion. Here, I argue that technologies can be distinguished as a combination of type of producer and an idealized artefact life history. Using this definition, a number of technologies are identified. The first technology historically, in the Protostomes, was the production of individual or family dwellings. Next came objects such as spider webs for trapping prey. Stigmergy followed, with the social insects, as a collective endeavour to construct a mega-structure using simple rules of accretion. Some birds and primates began to make tools, or simple technological objects whose function is closely related to their form. Humans are distinguished by their ability to make machines. Traditional technology took place once people voluntarily organised into groups with specialised knowledge to produce more complex objects and structures. Monumental objects like ceremonial pyramids came with the command economies of the early agrarian societies, which also resulted in a new category of artefact, the network. Finally, with modern civilizations came ad hoc accretion, or population-level adding-on, to make truly complex technological systems. Developing a theoretical framework within which artefacts, production processes and ways of interacting with them are identified should help the study of technology to become more scientific.
Abstract: We suggest that human culture exhibits key Darwinian evolutionary properties, and argue... more Abstract: We suggest that human culture exhibits key Darwinian evolutionary properties, and argue that the structure of a science of cultural evolution should share fundamental features with the structure of the science of biological evolution. This latter claim is tested by outlining ...
Big' history is the time between the Big Bang and contemporary technological life on Earth. The s... more Big' history is the time between the Big Bang and contemporary technological life on Earth. The stretch of big history can be considered as a series of developments in systems that manage ever-greater levels of energy flow, or thermodynamic disequilibrium. Recent theory suggests that step-wise changes in the work accomplished by a system can be explained using steady-state non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Major transitions in big history can therefore be rigorously defined as transitions between non-equilibrium thermodynamic steady-states (or NESSTs). The time between NESSTs represents a historical period, while larger categories of time can be identified by empirically discovering breaks in the rate of change in processes underlying macrohistorical trends among qualities of NESSTs. Two levels of periodization can be identified through this procedure. First, there are two major eons: cosmological and terrestrial, which exhibit qualitatively different kinds of historical scaling laws with respect to NESST duration and the gaps between NESSTs: the first eon decelerating, the second accelerating. Accelerating rates of historical change are achieved during the Terrestrial Eon by the invention of information inheritance processes. Second, eras can also be defined within Earth history by differences in the scaling of energy flow improvement per NESST. This is because each era is based on a different kind of energy source: the material era depends on nuclear fusion, the biological era on metabolism, the cultural era on tools, and the technological era on machines. Periodizing big history allows historians to uncover the mechanisms which trigger the innovations and novel organisations that spur thermodynamic transitions, as well as the mechanisms which keep historical processes under control.
Regular tooth brushing is considered an excellent preventive measure for oral plaque control. Yet... more Regular tooth brushing is considered an excellent preventive measure for oral plaque control. Yet despite over one hundred years of effort by dental professionals, levels of tooth brushing remain distressingly low. Evidence from a variety of studies suggests that tooth brushing is commonly performed in a regularised, automatic (i.e., routine) manner. Here it is argued a routine can be considered a recurring sequence of behaviours produced in conjunction with a script (or group of behaviours hierarchically represented in memory), and controlled as a unit or 'chunk'. A robust model of routine behaviour is presented, the Norman-Shallice-Cooper model, which is then applied to the example of tooth brushing behaviour, suggesting a variety of strategies for introducing tooth brushing into daily routines. Empirical studies are also reviewed which suggest that tooth brushing practices cluster in families. This clustering, together with the persistence of the practice throughout life, is consistent with the hypothesis that tooth brushing typically occurs within family-based traditions. Clinical and public health efforts in dentistry can therefore potentially be made more effective by taking into consideration how routines are created and then maintained within family or school environments.
Page 214. CHAPTER TEN Sexuality, Infertility and Sexually Transmitted Disease among Farmers and F... more Page 214. CHAPTER TEN Sexuality, Infertility and Sexually Transmitted Disease among Farmers and Foragers in Central Africa Robert C. Bailey And Robert V. Aunger Many areas in Africa are known to have among the highest ...
Sciences able to identify appropriate analytical units for their domain, their natural kinds, hav... more Sciences able to identify appropriate analytical units for their domain, their natural kinds, have tended to be more progressive. In the biological sciences, evolutionary natural kinds are adaptations that can be identified by their common history of selection for some function. Human brains are the product of an evolutionary history of selection for component systems which produced behaviours that gave adaptive advantage to their hosts. These structures, behaviour production systems, are the natural kinds that psychology seeks. We argue these can be identified deductively by classing behaviour first according to its level of behavioural control. Early animals in our lineage used only reactive production, Vertebrates evolved motivation, and later Primates developed executive control. Behaviour can also be classified by the type of evolutionary benefit it bestows: it can deliver either immediate benefits (food, gametes), improvements in the individual’s position with respect to the world (resource access, social status), or improvements in the ability to secure future benefits (knowledge, skill). Combining history and function implies the existence of seven types of behaviour production systems in human brains responsible for reflexive, instinctual, exploratory, driven, emotional, playful and planned behaviour. Discovering scientifically valid categories of behaviour can provide a fundamental taxonomy and common language for understanding, predicting and changing behaviour, and a way of discovering the organs in the brain––its natural kinds––that are responsible for behaviour.
Washing hands with soap at the right times – primarily after contact with faeces, but also before... more Washing hands with soap at the right times – primarily after contact with faeces, but also before handling food or feeding an infant – can significantly reduce the incidence of childhood infectious disease. Here, we present empirical results which substantiate a recent claim that washing hands can be the consequence of different kinds of psychological causes. Such causes can be divided into three kinds of control over behaviour: automatic or habitual responses, motivated or goal-driven behaviour to satisfy needs, and cognitive causes which reflect conscious concerns. Empirical results are based on 3-h-long structured observations of hand-washing behaviour in 802 nationally representative Kenyan households with children under five, and structured interviews with the primary female caretaker in these households, collected in March 2007. Factor analysis of questionnaire responses identified three psychological factors which are also significant predictors of observed hand-washing behaviour: having the habit of hand-washing at particular junctures during the day, the motivated need for personal or household cleanliness, and a lack of cognitive concern about the cost of soap use. These factors each represent a different kind of psychological cause. A perceived link between clean hands and sexual attractiveness also appeared in the factor analysis, but was not a determinant of actual behaviour. We also report evidence that those who express concern about the cost of soap use are those with relatively few economic resources. We suggest that those developing hygiene promotion programmes should consider the possible existence of multiple types of strategies for increasing hand-washing behaviour.
Big' history treats events between the Big Bang and contemporary technological life on Earth as a... more Big' history treats events between the Big Bang and contemporary technological life on Earth as a single narrative, suggesting that cosmological, biological and social processes can be treated similarly. An obvious trend in big history is the development of increasingly complex systems. This implies that the degree to which historical systems have deviated from thermodynamic equilibrium has increased over time. Recent theory suggests that stepwise changes in the work accomplished by a system can be explained using steady-state non-equilibrium thermodynamics. This paper argues that significant macro-historical events can therefore be characterized as transitions to steady states exhibiting persistently higher levels of thermodynamic disequilibrium which result in observably novel kinds or levels of organisation. Further, non-equilibrium thermodynamics suggests that such transitions should have particular temporal structures, beginning with sustainable energy innovations which result in novelties in organisation and in control mechanisms for maintaining the new organisation against energy fluctuations. We show how events in big history which qualify as historically significant by these criteria exhibit this internal structure. Big history thus obeys law-like processes, resulting in a common pattern of major transitions between steady-state historical regimes. This common process from cosmological to contemporary times makes big history a viable and relevant field of scientific study.
A rigorous case study concerning the maladaptiveness of a belief system is presented with respect... more A rigorous case study concerning the maladaptiveness of a belief system is presented with respect to food avoidances among horticulturalists and Pygmy foragers living in the Ituri Forest of Zaire. Results indicate that only one of the four ethnic groups suffers any selective ...
Social scientists have long remarked that there is consistency in what people believe and value o... more Social scientists have long remarked that there is consistency in what people believe and value over time, especially within definable groups. Anthropologists call this body of information “culture .” There are (at least) three causal mechanisms that can explain the recurrence of cultural traits . Recurrence can occur through (1) strong individual learning biases ; (2) population-level normalizing effects on what is adopted; and (3) replicator-based inheritance . Each of these mechanisms is favored by a particular brand of evolutionary theorizing about human society. Evolutionary psychologists (EPs) advocate the first option, which emphasizes the ability of universal structures in the evolved mind to come up with the same responses to environmental conditions time and again. What explains cultural consistency over time, then, is evolved psychological decision-making processes in the face of common environmental challenges. A group I call “cultural selectionists ” (CSs) prefer the second option, which notes that even poor social learning abilities can still produce consistently shared features at the level of the group if there are widely shared psychological preferences for traits or the types of individuals from whom to acquire culture. The third option, based on replication of the same information from generation to generation, is the memetic position. In this scenario, the cultural features that keep popping up are the phenotypic expressions of memes , or cultural replicators, disseminating through the population via social communication or mediated transmission via information machines such as computer networks. This variety in the possible explanations for cultural evolution is not generally recognized nor do advocates of one position generally acknowledge the validity of others. But I will argue in this chapter that all three of these possibilities are viable in our present state of ignorance about the means through which cultural traits reappear each generation; any one of them may account for a particular aspect of cultural inheritance .
in press, Shennan volume Cultural transmission is essentially the idea that beliefs and values ar... more in press, Shennan volume Cultural transmission is essentially the idea that beliefs and values are passed from generation to generation. The question I would like to address in this paper is how does this happen? In particular, what is the mechanism? In the absence of a deep understanding of the process by which people come to have similar ideas, a variety of metaphors have been used. The purpose of this paper is to outline the options for understanding cultural transmission as a process and to analyse their consistency with what we know about cultural change and communication more generally. I conclude with a view which I hope is an advance over the existing alternatives. My proposal makes clearer the role of artefacts in mediating many kinds of communication, and takes account of the recent evolution of evolutionary technologynetworks of machines which exhibit the qualities of information inheritance, selection and mutation -as an important phenomenon that interacts with cultural change.
ABSTRACT The phenogenotype, a routinely co-occuring combination of a cultural and genetic trait, ... more ABSTRACT The phenogenotype, a routinely co-occuring combination of a cultural and genetic trait, is unlikely to survive over time because of the potentially varying evolutionary pressures upon cultural as opposed to genetic traits. This is because the production and evaluation of cultural inputs will themselves be based on information previously acquired culturally. As a result, treating both cultural and genetic inheritance in a single recursion may be problematic.
Human technology is difficult to understand because it is so complex. However, human technology e... more Human technology is difficult to understand because it is so complex. However, human technology evolved from the simpler technologies of other species. Comparison with these other technologies should illuminate why human technology is distinct. Some birds and primates make tools, or simple technological objects whose function is closely related to their form. Humans, on the other hand, make machines-relatively complex objects whose functionality derives from the interaction of parts with respect to one another (e.g. a bow and arrow). Making machines requires a cognitive advance called 'second-order instrumentality', or the ability to invest in the production of an object that only has utility as part of, or for the making of, other objects. This ability enabled human societies to develop specialised forms of organised production, which in turn allowed the stock of artefacts to diversify and accumulate, whereas the technological repertoires of other species remain at a relatively constant level of complexity. several anonymous referees for very helpful comments on earlier drafts. Thanks also to Clive Lawson for the invitation to think about these issues in the first place.
Technology is a concept rife with confusion. Here, I argue that technologies can be distinguished... more Technology is a concept rife with confusion. Here, I argue that technologies can be distinguished as a combination of type of producer and an idealized artefact life history. Using this definition, a number of technologies are identified. The first technology historically, in the Protostomes, was the production of individual or family dwellings. Next came objects such as spider webs for trapping prey. Stigmergy followed, with the social insects, as a collective endeavour to construct a mega-structure using simple rules of accretion. Some birds and primates began to make tools, or simple technological objects whose function is closely related to their form. Humans are distinguished by their ability to make machines. Traditional technology took place once people voluntarily organised into groups with specialised knowledge to produce more complex objects and structures. Monumental objects like ceremonial pyramids came with the command economies of the early agrarian societies, which also resulted in a new category of artefact, the network. Finally, with modern civilizations came ad hoc accretion, or population-level adding-on, to make truly complex technological systems. Developing a theoretical framework within which artefacts, production processes and ways of interacting with them are identified should help the study of technology to become more scientific.
Abstract: We suggest that human culture exhibits key Darwinian evolutionary properties, and argue... more Abstract: We suggest that human culture exhibits key Darwinian evolutionary properties, and argue that the structure of a science of cultural evolution should share fundamental features with the structure of the science of biological evolution. This latter claim is tested by outlining ...
Big' history is the time between the Big Bang and contemporary technological life on Earth. The s... more Big' history is the time between the Big Bang and contemporary technological life on Earth. The stretch of big history can be considered as a series of developments in systems that manage ever-greater levels of energy flow, or thermodynamic disequilibrium. Recent theory suggests that step-wise changes in the work accomplished by a system can be explained using steady-state non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Major transitions in big history can therefore be rigorously defined as transitions between non-equilibrium thermodynamic steady-states (or NESSTs). The time between NESSTs represents a historical period, while larger categories of time can be identified by empirically discovering breaks in the rate of change in processes underlying macrohistorical trends among qualities of NESSTs. Two levels of periodization can be identified through this procedure. First, there are two major eons: cosmological and terrestrial, which exhibit qualitatively different kinds of historical scaling laws with respect to NESST duration and the gaps between NESSTs: the first eon decelerating, the second accelerating. Accelerating rates of historical change are achieved during the Terrestrial Eon by the invention of information inheritance processes. Second, eras can also be defined within Earth history by differences in the scaling of energy flow improvement per NESST. This is because each era is based on a different kind of energy source: the material era depends on nuclear fusion, the biological era on metabolism, the cultural era on tools, and the technological era on machines. Periodizing big history allows historians to uncover the mechanisms which trigger the innovations and novel organisations that spur thermodynamic transitions, as well as the mechanisms which keep historical processes under control.
Regular tooth brushing is considered an excellent preventive measure for oral plaque control. Yet... more Regular tooth brushing is considered an excellent preventive measure for oral plaque control. Yet despite over one hundred years of effort by dental professionals, levels of tooth brushing remain distressingly low. Evidence from a variety of studies suggests that tooth brushing is commonly performed in a regularised, automatic (i.e., routine) manner. Here it is argued a routine can be considered a recurring sequence of behaviours produced in conjunction with a script (or group of behaviours hierarchically represented in memory), and controlled as a unit or 'chunk'. A robust model of routine behaviour is presented, the Norman-Shallice-Cooper model, which is then applied to the example of tooth brushing behaviour, suggesting a variety of strategies for introducing tooth brushing into daily routines. Empirical studies are also reviewed which suggest that tooth brushing practices cluster in families. This clustering, together with the persistence of the practice throughout life, is consistent with the hypothesis that tooth brushing typically occurs within family-based traditions. Clinical and public health efforts in dentistry can therefore potentially be made more effective by taking into consideration how routines are created and then maintained within family or school environments.
Page 214. CHAPTER TEN Sexuality, Infertility and Sexually Transmitted Disease among Farmers and F... more Page 214. CHAPTER TEN Sexuality, Infertility and Sexually Transmitted Disease among Farmers and Foragers in Central Africa Robert C. Bailey And Robert V. Aunger Many areas in Africa are known to have among the highest ...
Sciences able to identify appropriate analytical units for their domain, their natural kinds, hav... more Sciences able to identify appropriate analytical units for their domain, their natural kinds, have tended to be more progressive. In the biological sciences, evolutionary natural kinds are adaptations that can be identified by their common history of selection for some function. Human brains are the product of an evolutionary history of selection for component systems which produced behaviours that gave adaptive advantage to their hosts. These structures, behaviour production systems, are the natural kinds that psychology seeks. We argue these can be identified deductively by classing behaviour first according to its level of behavioural control. Early animals in our lineage used only reactive production, Vertebrates evolved motivation, and later Primates developed executive control. Behaviour can also be classified by the type of evolutionary benefit it bestows: it can deliver either immediate benefits (food, gametes), improvements in the individual’s position with respect to the world (resource access, social status), or improvements in the ability to secure future benefits (knowledge, skill). Combining history and function implies the existence of seven types of behaviour production systems in human brains responsible for reflexive, instinctual, exploratory, driven, emotional, playful and planned behaviour. Discovering scientifically valid categories of behaviour can provide a fundamental taxonomy and common language for understanding, predicting and changing behaviour, and a way of discovering the organs in the brain––its natural kinds––that are responsible for behaviour.
Washing hands with soap at the right times – primarily after contact with faeces, but also before... more Washing hands with soap at the right times – primarily after contact with faeces, but also before handling food or feeding an infant – can significantly reduce the incidence of childhood infectious disease. Here, we present empirical results which substantiate a recent claim that washing hands can be the consequence of different kinds of psychological causes. Such causes can be divided into three kinds of control over behaviour: automatic or habitual responses, motivated or goal-driven behaviour to satisfy needs, and cognitive causes which reflect conscious concerns. Empirical results are based on 3-h-long structured observations of hand-washing behaviour in 802 nationally representative Kenyan households with children under five, and structured interviews with the primary female caretaker in these households, collected in March 2007. Factor analysis of questionnaire responses identified three psychological factors which are also significant predictors of observed hand-washing behaviour: having the habit of hand-washing at particular junctures during the day, the motivated need for personal or household cleanliness, and a lack of cognitive concern about the cost of soap use. These factors each represent a different kind of psychological cause. A perceived link between clean hands and sexual attractiveness also appeared in the factor analysis, but was not a determinant of actual behaviour. We also report evidence that those who express concern about the cost of soap use are those with relatively few economic resources. We suggest that those developing hygiene promotion programmes should consider the possible existence of multiple types of strategies for increasing hand-washing behaviour.
Big' history treats events between the Big Bang and contemporary technological life on Earth as a... more Big' history treats events between the Big Bang and contemporary technological life on Earth as a single narrative, suggesting that cosmological, biological and social processes can be treated similarly. An obvious trend in big history is the development of increasingly complex systems. This implies that the degree to which historical systems have deviated from thermodynamic equilibrium has increased over time. Recent theory suggests that stepwise changes in the work accomplished by a system can be explained using steady-state non-equilibrium thermodynamics. This paper argues that significant macro-historical events can therefore be characterized as transitions to steady states exhibiting persistently higher levels of thermodynamic disequilibrium which result in observably novel kinds or levels of organisation. Further, non-equilibrium thermodynamics suggests that such transitions should have particular temporal structures, beginning with sustainable energy innovations which result in novelties in organisation and in control mechanisms for maintaining the new organisation against energy fluctuations. We show how events in big history which qualify as historically significant by these criteria exhibit this internal structure. Big history thus obeys law-like processes, resulting in a common pattern of major transitions between steady-state historical regimes. This common process from cosmological to contemporary times makes big history a viable and relevant field of scientific study.
A rigorous case study concerning the maladaptiveness of a belief system is presented with respect... more A rigorous case study concerning the maladaptiveness of a belief system is presented with respect to food avoidances among horticulturalists and Pygmy foragers living in the Ituri Forest of Zaire. Results indicate that only one of the four ethnic groups suffers any selective ...
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