SNAFUS: An Evolutionary Perspective

Biological Theory

Volumn 2, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 317-328

  Sterelny, Kim ^a,b  

^a AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^b VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

constraint; cultural inheritance; environmental instability; fidelity; fitness trap; maladaptation; meme; outlaws

Indexed keywords

EID: 81855174703     PISSN: 15555542     EISSN: 15555550     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1162/biot.2007.2.3.317     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. Arthur W (2004) Biased Embryos and Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511606830
2. Atran S (2001) The trouble with memes: Inference versus imitation in cultural creation. Human Nature 12: 351–381. DOI: 10.1007/s12110-001-1003-0
3. Boehm C (1999) Hierarchy in the Forest. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4. Boehm C (2000) Conflict and the evolution of social control. Journal of Consciousness Studies 7: 79–101.
5. Boyd R, Richerson PJ (1992) Punishment allows the evolution of cooperation (or anything else) in sizable groups. Ethology and Sociobiology 13: 171–195. DOI: 10.1016/0162-3095(92)90032-Y
6. Boyd R, Richerson PJ (1996) Why culture is common but cultural evolution is rare. Proceedings of the British Academy 88: 77–93.
7. Boyer P (1999) Cognitive tracks of cultural inheritance: How evolved intuitive ontology governs cultural transmission. American Anthropologist 100: 876–889. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1998.100.4.876
8. Boyer P (2000) Evolution of the modern mind and the origins of culture: Religious concepts as the limiting case. In: Evolution and the Human Mind: Modularity, Language and Meta-cognition (Carruthers P, Chamberlain A, eds), 93–112. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511611926.006
9. Boyer P (2002) Religion Explained: The Human Instincts that Fashion Gods, Spirits and Ancestors. New York: Vintage.
10. Bulbulia J (2004) Religious costs as adaptations that signal altruistic intention. Evolution and Cognition 10: 19–38.
11. Bureau PR (2001) Abandoning Female Genital Cutting: Prevalence, Attitude, and Efforts to End the Practice. Nairobi: Population Reference Bureau.
12. Burt A, Trivers R (2005) Genes in Conflict: The Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
13. Dawkins R (1982) The Extended Phenotype. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
14. Dawkins R (2003) A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
15. Dawkins R (2004) Extended phenotype-but not too extended. A reply to Laland, Turner and Jablonka. Biology and Philosophy 19: 377–396.
16. Dennett DC (2006) Breaking The Spell: Religion As A Natural Phenomenon. New York: Viking.
17. Diamond J (1992) The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. New York: Harper Collins.
18. Diamond J (1998) Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: Norton.
19. Diamond J (2005) Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. London: Penguin-Allen Lane.
20. Dupré J, ed (1987) The Latest on The Best: Essays on Optimality and Evolution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
21. Edgerton RB (1992) Sick Societies: Challenging The Myth of Primitive Harmony. New York: Free Press.
22. Ewald PW (1994) Evolution of Infectious Disease. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
23. Fehr E, Fischbacher U (2003) The nature of human altruism. Nature 425: 785–791. DOI: 10.1038/nature02043
24. Fehr E, Fischbacher U (2004) Social norms and human cooperation. Trends in Cognitive Science 8: 185–189. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2004.02.007
25. Frank R (1988) Passion Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions. New York: Norton.
26. Gil-White F (2005) Common misunderstandings of memes (and genes): The promise and the limits of the genetic analogy to cultural transmission processes. In: Perspectives on Imitation: From Mirror Neurons to Memes (Hurley S, Chater N, eds), 317–337. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
27. Gould SJ, Lewontin RC (1978) The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: A critique of the adaptationist programme. Proceedings of the Royal Society London B205: 581–598. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.1979.0086
28. Harris M (1985). Good To Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture. New York: Simon and Schuster.
29. Henrich J (2004) Demography and cultural evolution: Why adaptive cultural processes produced maladaptive losses in Tasmania. American Antiquity 69: 197–221. DOI: 10.2307/4128416
30. Henrich J, Boyd R (1998) The evolution of conformist transmission and the emergence of between-group differences. Evolution and Human Behavior 19: 215–242. DOI: 10.1016/S1090-5138(98)00018-X
31. Henrich J, Boyd R (2002) On modelling cognition and culture: Why cultural evolution does not require replication of representations. Culture and Cognition 2: 87–112. DOI: 10.1163/156853702320281836
32. Jablonka E, Lamb M (2005) Evolution in Four Dimensions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
33. LeVine RA (1959) Gusii sex offenses: A study in social control. American Anthropologist (New Series) 61: 965–990. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1959.61.6.02a00050
34. Lewontin RC (1978) Adaptation. Scientific American 239 (3): 156–169. DOI: 10.1038/scientificamerican0978-212
35. Mackie G (1996) Ending footbinding and infibulation: A convention account. American Sociological Review 61: 999–1017. DOI: 10.2307/2096305
36. Mackie G (2003) Female genital cutting: A harmless practice? Medical Anthropology Quarterly 17: 135–158. DOI: 10.1525/maq.2003.17.2.135
37. Mayer P (1952) Gusii initiation ceremonies. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 83: 9–36. DOI: 10.2307/2844151
38. Maynard Smith J (2000) The concept of information in biology. Philosophy of Science 67: 177–194. DOI: 10.1086/392768
39. Obermeyer CM (2003) The health consequences of female circumcision: Science, advocacy, and standards of evidence. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 17: 394–411. DOI: 10.1525/maq.2003.17.3.394
40. Odling-Smee J, Laland K, Feldman MW (2003) Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
41. Orzack S, Sober E, eds (2001) Adaptationism and Optimality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
42. Read D (2006) Tasmanian knowledge and skill: Maladaptive imitation or adequate technology. American Antiquity 71: 164–184. DOI: 10.2307/40035327
43. Richerson PJ, Boyd R (1999) Complex societies: The evolutionary origins of a crude superorganism. Human Nature 10: 253–289. DOI: 10.1007/s12110-999-1004-y
44. Richerson PJ, Boyd R (2001) The evolution of subjective commitment to groups: A tribal instincts hypothesis. In: Evolution and the Capacity for Commitment (Nesse R, ed), 186–220. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
45. Richerson PJ, Boyd R (2005) Not By Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
46. Ridley M (2000) Mendel’s Demon: Gene Justice and the Complexity of Life. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
47. Sahlins M (1968) Notes on the original affluent society. In: Man the Hunter (Lee RB, DeVore I, eds), 85–89. New York: Aldine.
48. Shennan S (2002) Genes, Memes and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution. London: Thames and Hudson.
49. Sober E, Wilson DS (1998) Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
50. Sperber D (1996) Explaining Culture: A Naturalistic Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
51. Sterelny K (2001) Niche construction, developmental systems and the extended replicator. In: Cycles of Contingency: (Gray RG, Griffiths PE, Oyama S, eds), 333–350. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
52. Sterelny K (2003) Thought in a Hostile World. New York: Blackwell.
53. Sterelny K (2004) Symbiosis, evolvability and modularity. In: Modularity in Development and Evolution (Schlosser G, Wagner GW, eds), 490–516. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
54. Sterelny K (2006) Cognitive load and human decision, or, three ways of rolling the rock uphill. In: The Innate Mind, Vol. 2: Culture and Cognition (Carruthers P, Laurence S, Stich S, eds), 218–233. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
55. Sterelny K (2007) Social intelligence, human intelligence and niche construction. Proceedings of the Royal Society London B 362: 719–730. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2006.2006
56. Tomasello M (1999) The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
57. Wilson DS (2002) Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226901374.001.0001
58. Windshuttle K (2002) The Fabrication of Aboriginal History. Sydney: Macleay Press.