Towards a unified science of cultural evolution. Export

@article{citeulike:1001875, 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 the methods and approaches employed by the principal subdisciplines of evolutionary biology and assessing whether there is an existing or potential corresponding approach to the study of cultural evolution. Existing approaches within anthropology and archaeology demonstrate a good match with the macroevolutionary methods of systematics, paleobiology, and biogeography, whereas mathematical models derived from population genetics have been successfully developed to study cultural microevolution. Much potential exists for experimental simulations and field studies of cultural microevolution, where there are opportunities to borrow further methods and hypotheses from biology. Potential also exists for the cultural equivalent of molecular genetics in "social cognitive neuroscience," although many fundamental issues have yet to be resolved. It is argued that studying culture within a unifying evolutionary framework has the potential to integrate a number of separate disciplines within the social sciences.}, address = {Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution and School of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, Scotland, United KingdomDepartment of Anthropology, University of Missouri – Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, CanadaW. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z2, Canada. MesoudiA@missouri.edu http://www.missouri.edu/\~{}mesoudia/">www.missouri.edu/\~{}mesoudia/}, author = {Mesoudi, Alex and Whiten, Andrew and Laland, Kevin N N.}, citeulike-article-id = {1001875}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=544776}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X06009083}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17094820}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=17094820}, doi = {10.1017/S0140525X06009083}, issn = {0140-525X}, journal = {Behav Brain Sci}, keywords = {cultural-evolution, culture, evolution, theory}, month = {August}, number = {4}, pages = {329--347}, posted-at = {2006-12-19 12:01:27}, priority = {2}, title = {Towards a unified science of cultural evolution.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X06009083}, volume = {29}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1001875 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1001875 N2 - 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 the methods and approaches employed by the principal subdisciplines of evolutionary biology and assessing whether there is an existing or potential corresponding approach to the study of cultural evolution. Existing approaches within anthropology and archaeology demonstrate a good match with the macroevolutionary methods of systematics, paleobiology, and biogeography, whereas mathematical models derived from population genetics have been successfully developed to study cultural microevolution. Much potential exists for experimental simulations and field studies of cultural microevolution, where there are opportunities to borrow further methods and hypotheses from biology. Potential also exists for the cultural equivalent of molecular genetics in "social cognitive neuroscience," although many fundamental issues have yet to be resolved. It is argued that studying culture within a unifying evolutionary framework has the potential to integrate a number of separate disciplines within the social sciences. IS - 4 JF - Behav Brain Sci SN - 0140-525X AD - Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution and School of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, Scotland, United KingdomDepartment of Anthropology, University of Missouri – Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, CanadaW. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z2, Canada. MesoudiA@missouri.edu http://www.missouri.edu/~mesoudia/">www.missouri.edu/~mesoudia/ EP - 347 TI - Towards a unified science of cultural evolution. VL - 29 SP - 329 KW - cultural-evolution KW - culture KW - evolution KW - theory AU - Mesoudi, Alex AU - Whiten, Andrew AU - Laland, Kevin N PY - 2006/08// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X06009083 ER -