The Evolution Of Cultural Diversity

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The Evolution of Cultural Diversity

Author : Ruth Mace
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315418592
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (154 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Cultural Diversity by : Ruth Mace

Download or read book The Evolution of Cultural Diversity written by Ruth Mace and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-16 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtually all aspects of human behavior show enormous variation both within and between cultural groups, including material culture, social organization and language. Thousands of distinct cultural groups exist: about 6,000 languages are spoken today, and it is thought that a far greater number of languages existed in the past but became extinct. Using a Darwinian approach, this book seeks to explain this rich cultural variation. There are a number of theoretical reasons to believe that cultural diversification might be tree-like, that is phylogenetic: material and non-material culture is clearly inherited by descendants, there is descent with modification, and languages appear to be hierarchically related. There are also a number of theoretical reasons to believe that cultural evolution is not tree-like: cultural inheritance is not Mendelian and can indeed be vertical, horizontal or oblique, evidence of borrowing abounds, cultures are not necessarily biological populations and can be transient and complex. Here, for the first time, this title tackles these questions of cultural evolution empirically and quantitatively, using a range of case studies from Africa, the Pacific, Europe, Asia and America. A range of powerful theoretical tools developed in evolutionary biology is used to test detailed hypotheses about historical patterns and adaptive functions in cultural evolution. Evidence is amassed from archaeological, linguist and cultural datasets, from both recent and historical or pre-historical time periods. A unifying theme is that the phylogenetic approach is a useful and powerful framework, both for describing the evolutionary history of these traits, and also for testing adaptive hypotheses about their evolution and co-evolution. Contributors include archaeologists, anthropologists, evolutionary biologists and linguists, and this book will be of great interest to all those involved in these areas.

Explaining Human Diversity

Author : Carles Salazar
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1351127969
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (511 download)

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Book Synopsis Explaining Human Diversity by : Carles Salazar

Download or read book Explaining Human Diversity written by Carles Salazar and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2018-07-04 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are humans so different from each other and what makes the human species so different from all other living organisms? This introductory book provides a concise and accessible account of human diversity, of its causes and the ways in which anthropologists go about trying to make sense of it. Carles Salazar offers students a thoroughly integrated view by bringing together biological and sociocultural anthropology and including perspectives from evolutionary biology and psychology.

Continuities in Cultural Evolution

Author : Margaret Mead
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351526081
Total Pages : 526 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (515 download)

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Book Synopsis Continuities in Cultural Evolution by : Margaret Mead

Download or read book Continuities in Cultural Evolution written by Margaret Mead and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Margaret Mead once said, "I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples--faraway peoples--so that Americans might better understand themselves." Continuities in Cultural Evolution is evidence of this devotion. All of Mead's efforts were intended to help others learn about themselves and work toward a more humane and socially responsible society. Scientist, writer, explorer, and teacher, Mead brought the serious work of anthropology into the public consciousness. This volume began as the Terry Lectures, given at Yale in 1957 and was not published until 1964, after extensive reworking. The time she spent on revision is evidence of the importance Mead attached to the subject: the need to develop a truly evolutionary vision of human culture and society. This was desirable in her eyes both in order to reinforce the historical dimension in our ideas about human culture, and to preserve the relevance of historical and cultural diversity to social, economic, and political action. Given the present state of academic and public discourse alike, this volume speaks to us in a language we badly need to recover.

Culture and the Evolutionary Process

Author : Robert Boyd
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226069338
Total Pages : 339 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture and the Evolutionary Process by : Robert Boyd

Download or read book Culture and the Evolutionary Process written by Robert Boyd and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1988-06-15 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do biological, psychological, sociological, and cultural factors combine to change societies over the long run? Boyd and Richerson explore how genetic and cultural factors interact, under the influence of evolutionary forces, to produce the diversity we see in human cultures. Using methods developed by population biologists, they propose a theory of cultural evolution that is an original and fair-minded alternative to the sociobiology debate.

Human Natures

Author : Paul R. Ehrlich
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0142000531
Total Pages : 545 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Human Natures by : Paul R. Ehrlich

Download or read book Human Natures written by Paul R. Ehrlich and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-12-31 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do we behave the way we do? Biologist Paul Ehrlich suggests that although people share a common genetic code, these genes "do not shout commands at us...at the very most, they whisper suggestions." He argues that human nature is not so much result of genetic coding; rather, it is heavily influenced by cultural conditioning and environmental factors. With personal anecdotes, a well-written narrative, and clear examples, Human Natures is a major work of synthesis and scholarship as well as a valuable primer on genetics and evolution that makes complex scientific concepts accessible to lay readers.

Understanding Cultural Traits

Author : Fabrizio Panebianco
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319243497
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (192 download)

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Book Synopsis Understanding Cultural Traits by : Fabrizio Panebianco

Download or read book Understanding Cultural Traits written by Fabrizio Panebianco and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-02-26 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume constitutes a first step towards an ever-deferred interdisciplinary dialogue on cultural traits. It offers a way to enter a representative sample of the intellectual diversity that surrounds this topic, and a means to stimulate innovative avenues of research. It stimulates critical thinking and awareness in the disciplines that need to conceptualize and study culture, cultural traits, and cultural diversity. Culture is often defined and studied with an emphasis on cultural features. For UNESCO, “culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group”. But the very possibility of assuming the existence of cultural traits is not granted, and any serious evaluation of the notion of “cultural trait” requires the interrogation of several disciplines from cultural anthropology to linguistics, from psychology to sociology to musicology, and all areas of knowledge on culture. This book presents a strong multidisciplinary perspective that can help clarify the problems about cultural traits.

Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution

Author : Stephen Shennan
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 9780520255999
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (559 download)

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Book Synopsis Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution by : Stephen Shennan

Download or read book Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution written by Stephen Shennan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers an integrative approach to the application of evolutionary theory in studies of cultural transmission and social evolution and reveals the enormous range of ways in which Darwinian ideas can lead to productive empirical research, the touchstone of any worthwhile theoretical perspective. While many recent works on cultural evolution adopt a specific theoretical framework, such as dual inheritance theory or human behavioral ecology, Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution emphasizes empirical analysis and includes authors who employ a range of backgrounds and methods to address aspects of culture from an evolutionary perspective. Editor Stephen Shennan has assembled archaeologists, evolutionary theorists, and ethnographers, whose essays cover a broad range of time periods, localities, cultural groups, and artifacts.

Human Nature, Cultural Diversity, and the French Enlightenment

Author : Henry Vyverberg
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 019505864X
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (95 download)

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Book Synopsis Human Nature, Cultural Diversity, and the French Enlightenment by : Henry Vyverberg

Download or read book Human Nature, Cultural Diversity, and the French Enlightenment written by Henry Vyverberg and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1989 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this work, Henry Vyverberg traces the evolution and consequences of a crucial idea in French Enlightenment thought--the idea of human nature. Human nature was commonly seen as a broadly universal, unchanging entity, though perhaps modifiable by geographical, social, and historical factors. Enlightenment empiricism suggested a degree of cultural diversity that has often been underestimated in studies of the age. Evidence here is drawn from Diderot's celebrated Encyclopedia and from a vast range of writing by such Enlightenment notables as Voltaire, Rousseau, and d'Holbach. Vyverberg explains not only the age's undoubted fascination with uniformity in human nature, but also its acknowledgment of significant limitations on that uniformity. He shows that although the Enlightenment's historical sense was often blinkered by its notions of a uniform human nature, there were also cracks in this concept that developed during the Enlightenment itself.

Cultural Evolution

Author : Peter J. Richerson
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262019752
Total Pages : 499 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Cultural Evolution by : Peter J. Richerson

Download or read book Cultural Evolution written by Peter J. Richerson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading scholars report on current research that demonstrates the central role of cultural evolution in explaining human behavior. Over the past few decades, a growing body of research has emerged from a variety of disciplines to highlight the importance of cultural evolution in understanding human behavior. Wider application of these insights, however, has been hampered by traditional disciplinary boundaries. To remedy this, in this volume leading researchers from theoretical biology, developmental and cognitive psychology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, and economics come together to explore the central role of cultural evolution in different aspects of human endeavor. The contributors take as their guiding principle the idea that cultural evolution can provide an important integrating function across the various disciplines of the human sciences, as organic evolution does for biology. The benefits of adopting a cultural evolutionary perspective are demonstrated by contributions on social systems, technology, language, and religion. Topics covered include enforcement of norms in human groups, the neuroscience of technology, language diversity, and prosociality and religion. The contributors evaluate current research on cultural evolution and consider its broader theoretical and practical implications, synthesizing past and ongoing work and sketching a roadmap for future cross-disciplinary efforts. Contributors Quentin D. Atkinson, Andrea Baronchelli, Robert Boyd, Briggs Buchanan, Joseph Bulbulia, Morten H. Christiansen, Emma Cohen, William Croft, Michael Cysouw, Dan Dediu, Nicholas Evans, Emma Flynn, Pieter François, Simon Garrod, Armin W. Geertz, Herbert Gintis, Russell D. Gray, Simon J. Greenhill, Daniel B. M. Haun, Joseph Henrich, Daniel J. Hruschka, Marco A. Janssen, Fiona M. Jordan, Anne Kandler, James A. Kitts, Kevin N. Laland, Laurent Lehmann, Stephen C. Levinson, Elena Lieven, Sarah Mathew, Robert N. McCauley, Alex Mesoudi, Ara Norenzayan, Harriet Over, Jürgen Renn, Victoria Reyes-García, Peter J. Richerson, Stephen Shennan, Edward G. Slingerland, Dietrich Stout, Claudio Tennie, Peter Turchin, Carel van Schaik, Matthijs Van Veelen, Harvey Whitehouse, Thomas Widlok, Polly Wiessner, David Sloan Wilson

Cultural Evolution

Author : Alex Mesoudi
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226520455
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (265 download)

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Book Synopsis Cultural Evolution by : Alex Mesoudi

Download or read book Cultural Evolution written by Alex Mesoudi and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-07-30 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Darwin changed the course of scientific thinking by showing how evolution accounts for the stunning diversity and biological complexity of life on earth. Recently, there has also been increased interest in the social sciences in how Darwinian theory can explain human culture. Covering a wide range of topics, including fads, public policy, the spread of religion, and herd behavior in markets, Alex Mesoudi shows that human culture is itself an evolutionary process that exhibits the key Darwinian mechanisms of variation, competition, and inheritance. This cross-disciplinary volume focuses on the ways cultural phenomena can be studied scientifically—from theoretical modeling to lab experiments, archaeological fieldwork to ethnographic studies—and shows how apparently disparate methods can complement one another to the mutual benefit of the various social science disciplines. Along the way, the book reveals how new insights arise from looking at culture from an evolutionary angle. Cultural Evolution provides a thought-provoking argument that Darwinian evolutionary theory can both unify different branches of inquiry and enhance understanding of human behavior.

Cultural Transmission and Evolution (MPB-16), Volume 16

Author : L L Cavalli-sforza
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691209359
Total Pages : 406 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Cultural Transmission and Evolution (MPB-16), Volume 16 by : L L Cavalli-sforza

Download or read book Cultural Transmission and Evolution (MPB-16), Volume 16 written by L L Cavalli-sforza and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A number of scholars have found that concepts such as mutation, selection, and random drift, which emerged from the theory of biological evolution, may also explain evolutionary phenomena in other disciplines as well. Drawing on these concepts, Professors Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman classify and systematize the various modes of transmitting "culture" and explore their consequences for cultural evolution. In the process, they develop a mathematical theory of the non-genetic transmission of cultural traits that provides a framework for future investigations in quantitative social and anthropological science. The authors use quantitative models that incorporate the various modes of transmission (for example, parent-child, peer-peer, and teacher-student), and evaluate data from sociology, archaeology, and epidemiology in terms of the models. They show that the various modes of transmission in conjunction with cultural and natural selection produce various rates of cultural evolution and various degrees of diversity within and between groups. The same framework can be used for explaining phenomena as apparently unrelated as linguistics, epidemics, social values and customs, and diffusion of innovations. The authors conclude that cultural transmission is an essential factor in the study of cultural change.

Culture, Diversity and Heritage: Major Studies

Author : Lourdes Arizpe
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319138111
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (191 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture, Diversity and Heritage: Major Studies by : Lourdes Arizpe

Download or read book Culture, Diversity and Heritage: Major Studies written by Lourdes Arizpe and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-12-27 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The texts presented in this book trace the rise of culture as a major concern for development, international diplomacy, sustainability and national politics over the past two decades. As a major participant in anthropological field research, advocate for cultural freedom and decision-maker in international programs on culture, the author gives a firsthand account of the trade-offs, the contradictions and the management of consensus in these fields. She argues that the constitutive, functional and instrumental aspects of cultural narratives call for a more in-depth understanding of knowledge, leading to cultural and social sustainability in the framework of a "new worlding". Many of the texts gathered here were presented at the United Nations General Assembly and other high-level international meetings. Most of the texts are unpublished; some were first published in Spanish and are now available in English for the first time.

The Evolution of Culture in Animals

Author : John Tyler Bonner
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780691023731
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (237 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Culture in Animals by : John Tyler Bonner

Download or read book The Evolution of Culture in Animals written by John Tyler Bonner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1980 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animals do have culture, maintains this delightfully illustrated and provocative book, which cites a number of fascinating instances of animal communication and learning. John Bonner traces the origins of culture back to the early biological evolution of animals and provides examples of five categories of behavior leading to nonhuman culture: physical dexterity, relations with other species, auditory communication within a species, geographic locations, and inventions or innovations. Defining culture as the transmission of information by behavioral rather than genetical means, he demonstrates the continuum between the traits we find in animals and those we often consider uniquely human.

In the Light of Evolution

Author : National Academy of Sciences
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis In the Light of Evolution by : National Academy of Sciences

Download or read book In the Light of Evolution written by National Academy of Sciences and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences address scientific topics of broad and current interest, cutting across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Each year, four or five such colloquia are scheduled, typically two days in length and international in scope. Colloquia are organized by a member of the Academy, often with the assistance of an organizing committee, and feature presentations by leading scientists in the field and discussions with a hundred or more researchers with an interest in the topic. Colloquia presentations are recorded and posted on the National Academy of Sciences Sackler colloquia website and published on CD-ROM. These Colloquia are made possible by a generous gift from Mrs. Jill Sackler, in memory of her husband, Arthur M. Sackler.

Cultural Vision

Author : J. Knutsen
Publisher : iUniverse
ISBN 13 : 0595291465
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (952 download)

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Book Synopsis Cultural Vision by : J. Knutsen

Download or read book Cultural Vision written by J. Knutsen and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2003-11 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For hundreds of millennia, thousands of tribal cultures have thrived throughout the planet, each possessing a unique Vision, derived from thousands of years of evolution. With their deep ties to the world around them they experienced a communion with life, which offered a spiritual sense of overwhelming interconnectedness with the land, the plants, the animals, and each other. But one culture evolved to dominate all others, and linear history was created. Now a new reality has been built over the former surface of the planet, not only altering the biosphere, but also what is available for us to interact with and relate to. We struggle with the meaningless daily rote duties of our jobs. We live sequestered lives in houses and apartments, cut off from our neighbors, woefully uninformed in a sea of trivial information. Unprecedented resource extraction and energy consumption is heralding the greatest mass extinction of plant and animal life, the likes of which has not been seen in the last 65 million years. Cultural Vision exposes the ancient roots of these challenges as it reveals a new direction for the future of humanity based upon cooperation, true human values, and cultural diversity.

Cultural Evolution

Author : Ronald Inglehart
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108489311
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Cultural Evolution by : Ronald Inglehart

Download or read book Cultural Evolution written by Ronald Inglehart and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-22 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents and tests a theory that helps explain the rise of environmentalist parties, gender equality, and same sex marriage - and the reaction that led to Brexit and the election of Trump.

The Evolution of Culture

Author : Stefan Paul Linquist
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 9780754627616
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (276 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Culture by : Stefan Paul Linquist

Download or read book The Evolution of Culture written by Stefan Paul Linquist and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent years have seen a transformation in thinking about the nature of culture. Rather than viewing culture in opposition to biology, a growing number of researchers now regard culture as subject to evolutionary processes. This volume brings together a selection of the most influential articles from the past few decades on the changing vision of what an evolutionary approach to culture should look like.