Culture
Definition
- Distinctive behavior patterns in social units
- Shared by more than 2 individuals
- Persist over time
- New practitioners acquire through observation and socially aided learning
Memes
- information/ideas copied by imitation
- Unit of cultural replication
- Like genes, memes are 1. replicators, 2. variable, 3. selected
- Stories, styles, cheering, language, religions, theories, institutions etc
- Unlike genes, memes are more common with mutation, often are not intact when passed
from one person to another, and recipients can choose to transform the meme during
transmission
Culture Progresses By
- New patterns of behavior invented or modified from existing one
- Innovator transmits the pattern to another
- Consistent within and across performers
- Spreads across social units
Universal Darwinism
- 1. Evolution arises in any system of replicators
- 2. Variation by recombining and imperfect copying
- Selection when limited resources can’t support all variants
- Requires a mechanism to faithfully pass down
Different Ways for Learning
- Social facilitation: motor matching
- Goal emulation: replicate goals
- Imitation: demonstrator absent
- Teaching: active instruction while learner ignorant of task and goal
Culture Requirements
1. Behavior must probate in a social group (imitation, social learning, teaching)
2. Behavior must remain stable across generations (through language, writing)
, Culture in Animals
- Chimpanzees imitate, focuses on general function
- Children focus on actual method of use (initiative learning skills)
- Birds imitate
- Chimpanzee food box study: method of getting food spreads through population, local
vervet food norms, new infant adopt maternal preferences, migrated males switch to local
norm
- Cumulative culture box: more proportion of human reach stage 3, more prosiciality,
teaching, and communication
- Complexity of mental representation remains constant for chimps
- Human mental representation increase in complexity through cultural artifacts as society
progresses
- Story telling and teaching in human conversations
Morality
Altruism
- Does things for others without expectations of gains
- Sacrifices
- Benefit the group
- Genes-eye view
- Inclusive fitness
- Kin selection
- Appealing to relatedness of actor to recipients
- Behavior is selfish on a gene perspective
Gene Level Selection
- Hamilton’s rule: inclusive fitness = direct + indirect fitness
- rB (indirect) - C > O (direct) [r = relatedness of social actor and recipient; B & C =
changes brought about by social actions in offspring number]
4 Types of Social Actions
- Mutual benefit (++)
- Altruism ( -+)
- Selfishness (+-)
- Spite (--)
Relatedness and Helping
- Higher density of kin relative to caller = higher frequency of alarm calls
Definition
- Distinctive behavior patterns in social units
- Shared by more than 2 individuals
- Persist over time
- New practitioners acquire through observation and socially aided learning
Memes
- information/ideas copied by imitation
- Unit of cultural replication
- Like genes, memes are 1. replicators, 2. variable, 3. selected
- Stories, styles, cheering, language, religions, theories, institutions etc
- Unlike genes, memes are more common with mutation, often are not intact when passed
from one person to another, and recipients can choose to transform the meme during
transmission
Culture Progresses By
- New patterns of behavior invented or modified from existing one
- Innovator transmits the pattern to another
- Consistent within and across performers
- Spreads across social units
Universal Darwinism
- 1. Evolution arises in any system of replicators
- 2. Variation by recombining and imperfect copying
- Selection when limited resources can’t support all variants
- Requires a mechanism to faithfully pass down
Different Ways for Learning
- Social facilitation: motor matching
- Goal emulation: replicate goals
- Imitation: demonstrator absent
- Teaching: active instruction while learner ignorant of task and goal
Culture Requirements
1. Behavior must probate in a social group (imitation, social learning, teaching)
2. Behavior must remain stable across generations (through language, writing)
, Culture in Animals
- Chimpanzees imitate, focuses on general function
- Children focus on actual method of use (initiative learning skills)
- Birds imitate
- Chimpanzee food box study: method of getting food spreads through population, local
vervet food norms, new infant adopt maternal preferences, migrated males switch to local
norm
- Cumulative culture box: more proportion of human reach stage 3, more prosiciality,
teaching, and communication
- Complexity of mental representation remains constant for chimps
- Human mental representation increase in complexity through cultural artifacts as society
progresses
- Story telling and teaching in human conversations
Morality
Altruism
- Does things for others without expectations of gains
- Sacrifices
- Benefit the group
- Genes-eye view
- Inclusive fitness
- Kin selection
- Appealing to relatedness of actor to recipients
- Behavior is selfish on a gene perspective
Gene Level Selection
- Hamilton’s rule: inclusive fitness = direct + indirect fitness
- rB (indirect) - C > O (direct) [r = relatedness of social actor and recipient; B & C =
changes brought about by social actions in offspring number]
4 Types of Social Actions
- Mutual benefit (++)
- Altruism ( -+)
- Selfishness (+-)
- Spite (--)
Relatedness and Helping
- Higher density of kin relative to caller = higher frequency of alarm calls
