Culture Evolves

A lecture on Cultural Evolution. How it evolves, how we know, and a little bit on why it matters, with reference to solving environmental challenges.

Transcript

1. The Evolution of Culture Evolutionary Applications 2017 Tim Waring human
2. other primates have adaptive culture, with regional variation, imitation, parental instruction A. Whiten, J. Goodall, W. C. McGrew, T. Nishida, V. Reynolds, Y. Sugiyama, C. E. G. Tutin, R. W. Wrangham and C. Boesch, Cultures in chimpanzees, Nature 399, 682-685(17 June 1999)
3. Darwinian Evolution variation + selection + inheritance = adaptation
7. Cultural evolution is Darwinian. behavior beliefs institutions technology language
8. No Surprise • Darwin (1859) - spoke of human behavioral change (esp. Descent) • Dawkins (1971) - The Selfish Gene - "meme" • EO Wilson (1975) - Sociobiology • Lumsden & Wilson (1981) - genes constrain culture • Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman (1981) - weak constraints • Boyd & Richerson (1985) - genes & culture coevolve • Mesoudi (2011) - Cultural Evolution (book) • Henrich (2016) - The Secret of Our Success (book)
9. Genetic Evolution Cultural Evolution Variation random mutation guided innovation Transmission vertical parent -> offspring vertical, horizontal, oblique Selection environmental forcing strategic adoption of adaptive traits Cultural Evolution is Different Mesoudi, A., Whiten, A. & Laland, K.N., 2004. Perspective: is human cultural evolution Darwinian? Evidence reviewed from the perspective of the Origin of Species. Evolution, 58(1), pp.1–11.
10. Cultural Evolution Faster Perreault, C. (2012) ‘The Pace of Cultural Evolution’, PLoS ONE, 7(9), p. e45150. More Group Structured Bell, A. V., Richerson, P. J. and McElreath, R. (2009) ‘Culture rather than genes provides greater scope for the evolution of large-scale human prosociality’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(42), p. 17671. Cumulative Dean, L. G. et al. (2014) ‘Human cumulative culture: a comparative perspective’. Biological Reviews, 89 (2) 284-301 Cultural Evolution is also... ...compared to genetic evolution.
11. Cultural Microevolution Mesoudi (2009)
12. Major Topics • cumulative cultural adaptation • imitation, learning, development (ontogeny) • cultural group selection • cooperation, group structure, institutions • cultural phylogenies • ethnic & social identity, diversification, ethnogenesis, quantitative history • gene-culture coevolution (dual inheritance) • e.g. adult lactose absorption
13. Theory & Methods • Mathematical & computational models (differ from genetic models) • laboratory experiments, field experiments, cross-cultural comparisons, big digital data, historical data, twitter • FIELDS • Evolutionary psychology, biology, economics, linguistics, anthropology, history, humanities...
14. Controversies • that culture evolves at all (vs evoked, attractors) • that cultural evolution can be adaptive • that it evolves in groups (cultural group selection)
15. Cultural Macroevolution • cumulative culture • cultural phylogenies • cultural adaptation & adaptive radiations • long term complexity trends
16. Reticulate phylogenies Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Nunn, C. & Towner, M.C., 2006. Cultural macroevolution and the transmission of traits. Evolutionary Anthropology, 15, pp.52–64.
18. Split graphs showing the results of NeighborNet analyses of the (a) functional and (b) the symbolic aspects of canoe design. For functional traits, the average delta score was 0.46 and the average Q-residual = 0.03. For symbolic traits, the average delta score was 0.37 and the average Q-residual = 0.05. Scale bar, 0.01. symbolic functional Gray, R.D., Bryant, D. & Greenhill, S.J., 2010. On the shape and fabric of human history. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 365(1559), pp.3923–3933. Canoe design aspects
19. Going global: How humans conquered the world The New Scientist, 2007 Mathew, S. and Perreault, C. (2015) Behavioural variation in 172 small-scale societies indicates that social learning is the main mode of human adaptation, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282 (1810), p. 61.
20. Inuit technology
21. !kung technology
22. fossil fuel technology
23. anthropocene Waters et al., 2016. The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene. Science 351. Crutzen, Paul J. "The “anthropocene”." Earth system science in the anthropocene. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2006. 13-18.
24. • ultrasociality • group structure • masive scale • cooperation with non-relatives Culture and Cooperation -> Special role of groups Boyd, R. and Richerson, P. J. (2009) ‘Culture and the evolution of human cooperation’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1533), pp. 3281–3288.
25. The special role of human groups -> cultural group selection Human biological adaptations for culture facilitate group structure and group functional cultural adaptations.
26. Cultural Group Selection Henrich, J. (2004). Cultural group selection, coevolutionary processes and large-scale cooperation. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 53(1), 3–35. 1. Differential proliferation & extinction of groups 2. Differential success of groups 3. Selective imitation of between groups 4. Differential migration of individuals between groups
27. favors selfish individuals cooperative non-cooperative (‘selfish’) Individual Selection in a social dilemma
28. favors cooperative individuals within selfish groups cooperative non-cooperative (‘selfish’) Group Selection in a social dilemma
29. multilevel selection individual selection group selection favors selfish individuals favors cooperative individuals within selfish groups outcomes depend on the balance of both effects cooperative non-cooperative (‘selfish’) Levels of Selection Conflict in social dilemmas
30. 160% increase in clutch size Muir, W., 1996. Group selection for adaptation to multiple-hen cages: selection program and direct responses. Journal of Poultry Science 75, 447– 458. Posted to Flickr by USDAgov at http://flickr.com/photos/41284017@N08/6354331371 Group Selection on Genes (very rare in nature)
31. Cultural features that enhance group selection • conformity • social identity • ethnic marking • institutions (punishment, coercion, specialization, lock in) • cultural complexity
32. Implications • In addition to self-interested adaptations, humans sport group-functional adaptations. • Thus, we come pre-loaded with adaptations for forming effective cooperative organizations (with unrelated others). • Group-competition accelerates cooperation. • Therefore, competition can enhance institutional evolution.
33. Human cooperation is group-centric Apicella, Marlowe, Fowler & Christakis, (2012) Nature 481, 497–501. Group Selection on Genes
34. Molly Hayden, U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr Public Affairs http://www.army.mil/article/69655/ Group Selection on Culture
35. The Battle of Agincourt. http://www.britishbattles.com/100-years-war/agincourt.htm Choi, Bowles, 2007. The coevolution of parochial altruism and war. Science 318, 636–640. Group selection on both culture and genes
36. Evolution favors group functional traits, when: • Group benefit is higher • Individual cost is lower • Fraction of variation between groups is higher (Rogers 1990)
37. Price Equation The Price equation is a general statement about the statistical requirements for evolution (Frank 1995). expressed as where w is fitness, and z is the trait under selection across individuals i. The multi-level extension of the price equation for individuals i and groups g (McElreath & Boyd 2007). individual selection group selection
38. Institutions evolve by multilevel selection • Henrich, J., 2004. Cultural group selection. Co-evolutionary process and large-scale cooperation. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 53, 85–88. • Traulsen, A., Nowak, M.A., 2006. Evolution of cooperation by multilevel selection. PNAS 103, 10952–10955. • Van den Bergh, J., & Gowdy, J. M. (2009). A group selection perspective on economic behavior, institutions and organizations. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 72, 1-20.
39. Prisoner’s Dilemma (cooperation) Stag Hunt (coordination)
40. An example
41. How does societal structure (laws, infrastructure, governance) evolve? individuals villages nations
42. Genes vs. Culture Vining, D. R. (1986) ‘Social versus reproductive success: The central theoretical problem of human sociobiology’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 9(1), pp. 167–187. Culture Genes
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