Culture Evolves

Culture - broadly defined as all we learn from others that endures for long enough to generate customs and traditions - shapes vast swathes of our lives and has allowed the human species to dominate the planet in an evolutionarily unique way. Culture and cultural evolution are uniquely significant phenomena in evolutionary biology: they are products of biological evolution, yet they supplement genetic transmission with social transmission, thus achieving a certain independence from natural selection. However, cultural evolution nevertheless expresses key Darwinian processes itself and also interacts with genetic evolution. Just how culture fits into the grander framework of evolution is a big issue though, yet one that has received relatively little scientific attention compared to, for example, genetic evolution. Our 'capacity for culture' appears so distinctive among animals that it is often thought to separate we cultural beings from the rest of nature and the Darwinian forces that shape it. 'Culture Evolves' presents a different view arising from the recent discoveries of a diverse range of disciplines, that focus on evolutionary continuities. First, recent studies reveal that learning from others and the transmission of traditions are more widespread and significant across the animal kingdom than earlier recognized, helping us understand the evolutionary roots of culture. Second, archaeological discoveries have pushed back the origins of human culture to much more ancient times than traditionally thought. These developments together suggest important continuities between animal and human culture. A third new array of discoveries concerns the later diversification of human cultures, where the operations of Darwinian-like, cultural evolutionary processes are increasingly identified. Finally, surprising discoveries have been made about the imprint of cultural evolution in children's predisposition to acquire culture. The result of a major interdisciplinary meeting held by he Royal Society and the British Academy, this book presents the work of leading experts from the fields of ethology, behavioural ecology, primatology, comparative psychology, archaeology, anthropology, evolutionary biology and developmental psychology.

Table of Contents:
Andrew Whiten, Robert A. Hinde, Kevin N. Laland, and Christopher B. Stringer: Introduction Guillaume Rieucau and Luc-Alain Giraldeau: Exploring the costs and benefits of social information use: an appraisal of current experimental evidence K.N. Laland, N.Atton, and M.M. Webster: From fish to fashion: experimental and theoretical insights into the evolution of culture Tore Slagsvold and Karen L. Wiebe: Social learning in birds and its role in shaping a foraging nice Alex Thornton and Tim Clutton-Brock: Social learning and the development of individual and group behaviour in mammal societies Susan Perry: Social traditions and social learning in capuchin monkeys (Cebus) Andrew Whiten: The scope of culture in chimpanzees, humans, and ancestral apes Carel P. van Schaik and Judith M. Burkart: Social learning and evolution: the cultural intelligence hypothesis Simon M. Reader, Yfke Hager, and Kevin N. Laland: The evolution of primate general and cultural intelligence Ignacio de la Torre: The origins of stone tool technology in Africa: a historical perspective Naama Goren-Inbar: Culture and cognition in the Acheulian industry: a case study from Gesher Benot Ya'aqov Dietrich Stout: Stone toolmaking and the evolution of human culture and cognition Francesco d'Errico and Chris B. Stringer: Evolution, revolution or saltation scenario for the emergence of modern cultures Stephen Shennan: Descent with modification and the archaeological record R.A. Foley and M. Mirazon Lahr: The evolution of the diversity of cultures Russell D. Gray, Quentin D. Atkinson, and Simon J. Greenhill: Language evolution and human history: what a difference a date makes Andreea S. Calude and Mark Pagel: How do we use language? Shared patters in the frequency of word use across 17 world languages Thomas E. Currie and Ruth Mace: Mode and tempo in the evolution of socio-political organization: reconciling 'Darwinian' and 'Spencerian' evolutionary approaches in anthropology L. Rendell, R. Boyd, M. Enquist, M.W. Feldman, L. Fogarty, and K. N. Laland: How copying affects the amount, evenness, and persistence of cultural knowledge: insights from the social learning strategies tournament Mark Collard, Briggs Buchanan, Jesse Morin, and Andre Costopoulos: What drives the evolution of hunter gatherer subsistence technology? A reanalysis of the risk hypothesis with data from the Pacific Northwest Joseph Henrich and James Broesch: On the nature of cultural transmission networks: evidence from Fijian villages for adaptive learning biases Gergely Csibra and Gyorgy Gergeley: Natural pedagogy as evolutionary adaptation Derek E. Lyons, Diana H. Damrosch, Jennifer K. Lin, Deanna M. Macris, and Frank C. Keil: The scope and limits of overimitation in the transmission of artefact culture Barry S. Hewlett, Hillary N. Fouts, Adam H. Boyette, and Bonnie L. Hewlett: Social learning among Congo Basin hunter-gathers Paul L. Harris and Kathleen H. Corriveau: Young children's selective trust in informants

About the Author :
Andrew Whiten is Director of the Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution at the University of St Andrews and Director of the University's 'Living Links to Human Evolution' Research Centre in Edinburgh Zoo. His research interests are broadly in the evolution and development of social cognition, with a particular recent focus on social learning, tradition and culture in humans and in non-human primates. Robert A. Hinde is formerly Royal Society Research Professor and Master, St. John's College, Cambridge, UK. Kevin N Laland received his PhD from University College London in 1990 and is currently Professor of Biology at the University of St Andrews. His research employs both experimental and theoretical methods to investigate a range of topics related to animal (including human) behaviour and evolution, particularly niche construction, social learning, and gene-culture co-evolution. He is the author of over 170 scientific articles and 8 books. Professor Chris Stringer has worked at the Natural History Museum since 1973, and is now Research Leader in Human Origins and a Fellow of the Royal Society. His early research concentrated on the relationship of Neanderthals and early modern humans in Europe, but through his work on the 'Out of Africa' theory of modern human origins, he now collaborates with archaeologists, dating specialists and geneticists in attempting to reconstruct the evolution of modern humans globally. His recent books include The Complete World of Human Evolution (2005, with Peter Andrews), and Homo britannicus (2006), which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Prize. He has excavated at sites in Britain, Gibraltar, Morocco and Turkey, and is currently leading the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project in its third phase (AHOB3), which began in October 2009, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. AHOB is a major collaborative project to reconstruct the pattern of the earliest human colonisations of Britain and Europe.

Review :
A compelling account of recent cross-disciplinary progress in solving that mystery of mysteries, the origins of human culture. Perhaps in some important ways, we humans aren't so different after all. Prof Bennett G. Galef, McMaster University, Canada This collection is an excellent introduction to the vibrant and increasingly diverse field of cultural evolution. It is especially valuable in treating human and non-human culture in a comparative framework Prof Pete Richerson, University of California, USA `Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the volume lies in bringing such a diverse range of topics together in one place, for which the editors should be commended. Rarely does one find oneself considering the social transmission of stickleback foraging behaviour, followed a few chapters later by historical analysis of socio-political organisation in small-scale Pacific island societies. This breadth necessarily encompasses multiple disciplines, from biology to anthropology, psychology, archaeology, linguistics, and sociology. Whereas traditionally such disciplines have had little to do with one another, the evolutionary framework adopted here provides a common language within which to understand these diverse phenomena, from fish foraging to Fijian fiefdoms.' Trends in Ecology & Evolution, June 2013