WEEK 3 PAPER - MASOUDI Humans possess unique high-fidelity social learning · Infants and great apes differ little in cognitive abelites · Only humans spontaneously and effectively imitate others · Humans also display imitation based on prestige without understanding why actions should be copied High fidelity social learning supports cumulative cultural evolution · Cultural traits exhibit variation and are thus subject to similar competition as genetic traits Cultural micro-evolution . Content biases: certain traits are acquired due to either a cognitive, or social preference for the intrinsic characteristic of the trait · Model-based biases: Preferential learning from people who possess skill or success o Allows easier learning than evaluation of the actual behaviour · Frequency based (conformist) bias: people copy traits displayed by more peo- ple more often than rare traits · Guided variation: individuals transform a specific acquired trait in a non-ran- dom direction generating cross-cultural regularities DISCUSSION · What claims is he making? o Cultural evolution is comparable to biological evolution o It is important for our success · Our psychology is shaped by it · What evidence? · Apes vs children
· People over imitate other people · Strengths · Weaknesses READING Where does cultural variation come from Ecological and geographical variation . Ecology of a society can influence the culture o Kinds of foods that are available: hunters vs non-hunters o How society is structured: When survival requires bravery and dangerous activity masculin- ity becomes a highly valued trait and more conflicts occur than if food is easily obtained Small differences can have large effects o Why did certain historical events play out the way they did? o Proximal causes: factors that have direct and immediate relations with their effects The Spanish had pollical, organization, guns, steal armour, horses, and the incans were being decimated by small pox Why did the Spanish have all these advantages? o Distal causes: initial differences that lead to effects over long periods of time often through indirect relations Fertile crescent had plants and animals especially suited for do- mestication Eurasia runs east to west allowing easy transfer of agricultural knowledge due to similar climates; the other continents run north to south Agriculture improvements allowed more people to pursue other productive tasks since food was more taken care of
Domestication of animals over many years built up an immunity to viruses and infections in Eurasia that the Americas didn't have. Geographical differences led to large differences in culture ad- vancement Ways of thinking can be influenced by geography Chinese attitudes can be partially predicted by whether they come from a rice growing community or a wheat growing one Transmitted vs evoked culture o Evoked culture: idea that all people have the same biologically en- coded repertoire of behaviours that can be evoked under the right cir- cumstances Cultural variation can be seen as coming from differentially evoked basic psychological processes . Ex. All people prefer mates who are physically attractive · The extent of this is dependent on the prevalence of