Human nature, cultural diversity and evolutionary theory

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 366, Issue 1563, 2011, Pages 454-463

  Plotkin, Henry ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Culture; Human diversity; Social constructions

Indexed keywords

ADAPTATION; CULTURE; EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY; EVOLUTIONARY THEORY; HUMAN BEHAVIOR; LEARNING; SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION; SPECIES DIVERSITY;

EID: 79951843021     PISSN: 09628436     EISSN: 14712970     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0160     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Lorenz, K. Z. 1969 The innate bases of learning. In On the biology of learning (ed. K. Pribram), pp. 13-91. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Janovovich.
2. Coyne, J. A. 2009 Why evolution is true. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
3. Plotkin, H. 2010 Evolutionary worlds without end. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
4. Kuper, A. 2000 If memes are the answer, what is the question? In Darwinizing culture: the status of memetics as a science (ed. R. Aunger), pp. 175-188. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
5. Waddington, C. H. 1969 Paradigm for an evolutionary process. In Towards a theoretical biology. Vol. 2: Sketches (ed. C. H. Waddington), pp. 106-124. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
6. Miller, G. 2009 On the origin of the nervous system. Science 325, 24-27. (doi:10.1126/science.325-24)
7. Plotkin, H. 2007 Necessary knowledge. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
8. Marler, P. 2004 Innateness and the instinct to learn. Ann. Acad. Brasil. Cienc. 76, 189-200. (Pubitemid 38835026)
9. Fodor, J. 1998 In critical condition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
10. Konishi, M. 1965 The role of auditory feedback in the control of vocalization in the white-crowned sparrow. Zietschr. Tierpsychol. 22, 770-793.
11. Marler, P. & Tamura, M. 1964 Culturally transmitted patterns of vocal behaviour in sparrows. Science 146, 1483-1486. (doi:10.1126/science.146.3650. 1483)
12. Kroodsma, D. E. & Konishi, M. 1991 A suboscine bird develops normal song without auditory feedback. Anim. Behav. 42, 477-487. (doi:10.1016/S0003- 3472 (05) 80047-8)
13. Kroodsma, D. E. & Miller, E. H. 1996 Ecology and evolution of acoustic communication in birds. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
14. Marler, P. 1997 Three models of song learning: evidence from behaviour. J. Neurobiol. 33, 501-516. (doi:10.1002/(SICI) 1097-4695 (19971105) 33:5<501::AID-NEU2> 3.0.CO;2-8) (Pubitemid 27456449)
15. Soha, J. A. & Marler, P. 2000 A species-specific acoustic cue for selective song learning in the white-crowned sparrow. Anim. Behav. 60, 297-306. (doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1499)
16. Rendell, L. & Whitehead, H. 2001 Culture in whales and dolphins. Behav. Brain Sci. 24, 309-382.
17. de Waal, F. B. M. 2000 The ape and the sushi master: reflections of a primatologist. New York, NY: Basic Books.
18. Van Schaik, C. P., Ancranaz, N., Borgen, G., Galdikas, B., Knott, C. D., Singleton, I., Suzuki, D., Utami, S. S. & Merrill, M. 2003 Orangutan cultures and the evolution of material culture. Science 299, 102-105. (doi:10.1126/science.1078004) (Pubitemid 36042410)
19. Whiten, A., Goodall, J., McGraw, W. C. D., Nishida, T., Reynolds, V., Sugiyama, Y., Tutin, C. E. G., Wrangham, R. W. & Boesch, C. 1999 Cultures in chimpanzees. Nature 399, 682-685. (doi:10.1038/21415) (Pubitemid 29289061)
20. Whiten, A., Goodall, J., McGraw, W. C. D., Nishida, T., Reynolds, V., Sugiyama, Y., Tutin, C. E. G., Wrangham, R. W. & Boesch, C. 2001 Cultural variation in chimpanzees. Behaviour 138, 1481-1516. (doi:10.1163/ 156853901317367717) (Pubitemid 33590067)
21. Whiten, A., Horner, V. & de Waal, F. B. M. 2005 Conformity to cultural norms of tool use in chaimpanzees. Nature 437, 737-740. (doi:10.1038/nature04047) (Pubitemid 41486542)
22. Szathmary, E. & Maynard Smith, J. 1995 The major evolutionary transitions. Nature 374, 227-232. (doi:10. 1038/374227a0)
23. Plotkin, H. 2002 The imagined world made real. London, UK: Penguin.
24. Allison, D. 1995 Structuralism. In The Cambridge dictionary of philosophy (ed. R. Audi), pp. 770-772. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
25. Piaget, J. 1971 Structuralism. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
26. Baddeley, A. 1997 Human memory. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
27. Bartlett, F. C. 1932 Remembering. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
28. Rummelhart, D. E. 1975 Notes on a scheme for stories. In Representation and understanding (eds D. G. Bobrow & A. Collins), pp. 211-236. New York, NY: Academic Press.
29. Shank, R. C. & Abelson, R. 1977 Scripts, plans, goals and understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
30. Searle, J. R. 1995 The construction of social reality. London, UK: Penguin.
31. Basalla, G. 1988 The evolution of technology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
32. Bratman, M. E. 1992 Shared cooperative activity. Phil. Rev. 101, 327-341. (doi:10.2307/2185537)
33. Tuomela, R. & Miller, K. 1988 We-intentions. Phil. Stud. 53, 367-389. (doi:10.1007/BF00353512)
34. Chomsky, N. 2000 New horizons in the study of language and mind. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
35. Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N. & Fitch, W. T. 2002 The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science 298, 1569-1579. (doi:10.1126/science.298.5598.1569) (Pubitemid 35387188)
36. Tomasello, M. 1999 The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37. Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T. & Moll, H. 2005 Understanding and sharing intentions. Behav. Brain Sci. 28, 675-735.
38. Frith, U. & Wolpert, D. (eds) 2004 The neuroscience of social interaction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
39. Rizzolatti, G. & Craighero, I. 2004 The mirror neuron system. Ann. Rev. Neurosci. 27, 169-192. (doi:10.1146/annurev. neuro.27.070203.144230)
40. Rizzolatti, G. & Fogassi, L. 2007 Mirror neurons and social cognition. In The Oxford handbook of evolutionary psychology (eds R. I. M. Dunbar & L. Barrett), pp. 179-195. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
41. Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. 1985 Culture and the evolutionary process. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
42. Sherif, M. 1936 The psychology of social norms. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
43. Asch, J. E. 1951 Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgement. In Groups, leadership, and men (ed. H. Guetzkow), pp. 74-90. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.
44. Jacobs, R. C. & Campbell, D. T. 1961 The perpetuation of an arbitrary tradition through several generations of a laboratory microculture. J. Abnormal Soc. Psychol. 62, 649-658.
45. Milgram, S. 1974 Obedience to authority. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
46. Call, J. 2007 Social knowledge in primates. In The Oxford handbook of evolutionary psychology (eds R. I. M. Dunbar & L. Barrett), pp. 71-81. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
47. de Waal, F. B. M. 2009 The age of empathy. New York, NY: Random House.
48. Williams, G. C. 1966 Adaptation and natural selection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
49. Ridley, M. 1996 Evolution. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
50. Lewontin, R. C. 1980 Adaptation. In The encylopaedia Einaudi, pp. 235-251. Milan, Italy: Einaudi.
51. Lewontin, R. C. 1983 Gene, organism and environment. In Evolution from molecules to men (ed. D. S. Bendall), pp. 273-285. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
52. Godfrey-Smith, P. 1999 Adaptationism and the power of selection. Biol. Phil. 14, 181-194. (doi:10.1023/A:1006630232690) (Pubitemid 129644278)
53. Odling-Smee, F. J., Laland, K. N. & Feldman, M. W. 2003 Niche construction: the neglected process in evolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
54. Murdock, G. P. 1956 How culture changes. In Man, culture and society (ed. H. L. Shapiro), pp. 247-260. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
55. Dawkins, R. 1976 The selfish gene. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
56. Aunger, R. (ed.) 2000 Darwinizing culture: the status of memetics as science. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
57. Mesoudi, A., Whiten, A. & Laland, K. N. 2004 Is human cultural evolution Darwinian? Evidence viewed from the perspective of The Origin of Species. Evolution 58, 1-11. (Pubitemid 38355633)
58. Mesoudi, A., Whiten, A. & Laland, K. N. 2006 Towards a unified science of cultural evolution. Behav. Brain Sci. 29, 329-383.
59. Gould, S. J. & Lewontin, R. C. 1979 The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 205, 581-598. (doi:10.1098/rspb.1979.0086) (Pubitemid 10248042)
60. Gould, S. J. & Vrba, E. S. 1982 Exaptation-a missing terms in the science of form. Palaeobiology 8, 4-15. (Pubitemid 13281606)
61. Gould, S. J. 1991 Exaptation: a critical tool for an evolutionary psychology. J. Soc. Issues 47, 43-65. (doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01822.x)
62. Hauser, M. D. 2009 The possibility of impossible cultures. Nature 460, 190-196. (doi:10.1038/460190a)
63. Wheeler, W. M. 1911 The ant colony as an organism. J. Mor phol. 22, 307-325. (doi:10.1002/jmor.1050220206)