Cognitive Tracks of Cultural Inheritance: How Evolved Intuitive Ontology Governs Cultural Transmission Export

@article{citeulike:3312512, abstract = {"Acquired culture" depends on social transmission and displays salient cross-cultural variability. It seems unconnected to adaptive fitness. It is, however, constrained by evolved properties of the mind. Recurrent - not necessarily universal - features of acquired culture can be explained by taking into account the early development and constraining power of intuitive ontology, a set of principled domain-specific inferential capacities. These allow us to predict recurrent trends in domains as diverse as folk-psychology, representations of natural kinds, the uses of literacy, the acquisition of scientific beliefs, and even the limiting-case of religious ontologies. In all these domains the notion of cultural transmission along domain-specific cognitive tracks governed by intuitive ontology is supported by independent psychological evidence and provides testable explanations for recurrent features in the anthropological record}, author = {Boyer, Pascal}, citeulike-article-id = {3312512}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/681814}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/681814}, comment = {From the bibliography of Jason Slone's ''Theological Incorrectness'' .}, doi = {10.2307/681814}, issn = {00027294}, journal = {American Anthropologist}, keywords = {anthropology, cognitive\_psychology, language, religion, toread}, number = {4}, pages = {876--889}, posted-at = {2008-09-22 01:34:17}, priority = {2}, publisher = {Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association}, series = {New Series}, title = {Cognitive Tracks of Cultural Inheritance: How Evolved Intuitive Ontology Governs Cultural Transmission}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/681814}, volume = {100}, year = {1998} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3312512 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3312512 N2 - "Acquired culture" depends on social transmission and displays salient cross-cultural variability. It seems unconnected to adaptive fitness. It is, however, constrained by evolved properties of the mind. Recurrent - not necessarily universal - features of acquired culture can be explained by taking into account the early development and constraining power of intuitive ontology, a set of principled domain-specific inferential capacities. These allow us to predict recurrent trends in domains as diverse as folk-psychology, representations of natural kinds, the uses of literacy, the acquisition of scientific beliefs, and even the limiting-case of religious ontologies. In all these domains the notion of cultural transmission along domain-specific cognitive tracks governed by intuitive ontology is supported by independent psychological evidence and provides testable explanations for recurrent features in the anthropological record IS - 4 JF - American Anthropologist SE - New Series SN - 00027294 EP - 889 TI - Cognitive Tracks of Cultural Inheritance: How Evolved Intuitive Ontology Governs Cultural Transmission PB - Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association VL - 100 SP - 876 KW - anthropology KW - cognitive_psychology KW - language KW - religion KW - toread N1 - From the bibliography of Jason Slone's ''Theological Incorrectness'' . AU - Boyer, Pascal PY - 1998/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/681814 ER -