Cultural Selection

Theories of cultural selection have been rejected or deliberately ignored by many social scientists. The main objections against evolutionary and selectionist theories are listed and commented. Evolutionary and selectionist theories of sociocultural change generally take a non-anthropocentric perspective, while many traditional sociologists prefer an anthropocentric perspective. Some of the objections against selection theories can be dismissed as expressions of preference for one perspective over another. Different perspectives lead scientists to make different kinds of discoveries, but all perspectives are valid, and no single theory or perspective can cover all aspects of social phenomena. Other objections can be dismissed as referring to obsolete or misunderstood versions of the theory. The limitations of cultural selection theory are discussed and some improvements are proposed. It is concluded that cultural selection theory can explain certain phenomena that other theories cannot explain, especially phenomena that are unplanned or unintended.

Genes and culture co-evolve to determine variations in dietary habits. Our evolutionary heritage regarding food choice and food preferences is responsible for the mismatch with the food environments we have created, which leads to problems such as overweight and obesity. Several hypotheses have attempted to explain the high rate of obesity present in today’s world. The thrifty genotype hypothesis suggested that obesity today is a throwback to our ancestors having undergone positive selection for genes that favored energy storage. The drifty genotype hypothesis contends that the prevalence of thrifty genes is not a result of positive selection for energy-storage genes but, rather, is attributable to genetic drift resulting from the removal of predatory selection pressures. Both hypotheses focus on environmental changes over time, positive selection and genetic drift. While genetics plays a significant role, we believe that cultural selection is also responsible for the spread of obesogenic phenomena in Albania. The high rates of overweight and obesity among Albanians today can be explained as a mismatch between our evolutionary past and maladaptive behaviors.

Researchers in cultural evolutionary theory (CET) have recently proposed the foundation of a new field of research in cultural evolution named 'epistemic evolution'. Drawing on evolutionary epistemology's early studies, this programme aims to study science as an evolutionary cultural process. The paper discusses the way CET's study of science can contribute to the philosophical debate and, vice versa, how the philosophy of science can benefit from the adoption of a cultural evolutionary perspective. Here, I argue that CET's main contribution to an evolutionary model of scientific growth comes from the application of 'population thinking' to science. Populationism offers a 'variation based' understanding of scientists' epistemic and socio-epistemic criteria that is able to better accommodate the variegated preferences that intervene in scientific epistemic decisions. A discussion of the so called theory choice context is offered as an example of the way a populationist approach can shed new light on the operation of scientists' epistemic choices.

Current mainstream accounts of cultural behavior are
strongly founded on a selectionist perspective. However,
more than a few theoretical discussions have emerged
regarding the appropriateness of the subject matter and the
identification of units of selection. I argue that although
Glenn's central formulations constitute a valuable extension
of op rant principles, the selectionist approach has hindered
the theory's conceptual and empirical development. An
examination of the fundamental notions included in the
theory of cultural evolution is presented. Specifically, we
review the concepts of metacontingencies, interlocking
behavioral contingencies, macrocontingencies, and
aggregate products in terms of their contribution to a
valid and significant account of cultural behavior. It is
suggested that experimental functional analyses are required
to identify' control of behavior by local contingencies or
group consequences including cumulative and aggregate
products.

This work proposes a methodology for documenting metric patterns of variation and trait correlation in Late Period (ca. CE 900-1500) projectile points from the Puna and pre-Puna of Salta, Argentina. In so doing, our main goal is to explain the patterns observed in terms of mechanisms of cultural evolution and selection over the design of the artefacts. We applied this methodology to assemblages of concave-based triangular projectile points from four archaeological sites whose chronologies are well established. As a result, we were able to document low degrees of variation, as well as high, positive, significant, Pearson co-variation and partial correlation coefficients between metrical traits. These results suggest a process of correlational selection that preserved an artefact design with a structure of highly integrated traits that maximised the edge-area in relation to the haft, turning these projectile points into very lethal weapons, even for potential use in interpersonal viol...

[FR] Le présent article fournit quelques pistes pour l’application de différentes théories de l’évolution culturelle à la traduction et à la traductologie. Avant tout, nous présentons différentes approches darwiniennes à la culture, et nous redéfinissons en partie un de leurs concepts-clés, celui de « mème » (Dawkins, 1976) ; nous fournissons ensuite quelques hypothèses concernant un domaine limité, mais faisant partie de la « mémétique de la traduction » : la sélection des textes à traduire à l’intérieur du champ éditorial. Des exemples, tirés de la translation (Berman, 1995) italienne des Contes de Charles Perrault, sont donnés en fin d’article.

[EN] This article provides some possible applications of different theories of cultural evolution to translation and translation studies. It first presents some Darwinian approaches to culture, partly redefining one of their key concepts, that of “meme” (Dawkins, 1976); it then provides some hypotheses on an area that, although limited, is still part of “translation memetics”: the selection of texts for translation within the editorial field. Examples from the Italian translation (Berman, 1995) of Charles Perrault’s Contes are given at the end of article.

In these series of experiments we used an iterated prisoners’ dilemma game (IPDG) to examine the effect of metacontingencies on aggregate products of the interrelated behavior of four players. Results of the first experiment showed that cultural level consequences (“market feedback” in the form of points delivered to all players) contingent on aggregate products XXXX or YYYY increased the frequency of those productions. In subsequent experiments we added a baseline condition where the players experienced only the individual behavioral contingencies embedded in the game. Then we imposed the metacontingency on the XXXX aggregate product or, alternatively, on YYYY. After several reversals, we discontinued the metacontingency and the players again experienced only the individual contingencies of the game. In one experiment we used a yoked control to assess the effect of market feedback independent from the metacontingency relation. Results indicate that the cultural consequence (market ...

This work proposes a methodology for documenting metric patterns of variation and trait correlation in Late Period (ca. CE 900-1500) projectile points from the Puna and pre-Puna of Salta, Argentina. In so doing, our main goal is to explain the patterns observed in terms of mechanisms of cultural evolution and selection over the design of the artefacts. We applied this methodology to assemblages of concave-based triangular projectile points from four archaeological sites whose chronologies are well established. As a result, we were able to document low degrees of variation, as well as high, positive, significant, Pearson co-variation and partial correlation coefficients between metrical traits. These results suggest a process of correlational selection that preserved an artefact design with a structure of highly integrated traits that maximised the edge-area in relation to the haft, turning these projectile points into very lethal weapons, even for potential use in interpersonal violence. This lends support to the hypothesis presented here, where replication of these projectile points occurred within a process of stabilizing cultural selection through biased transmission mechanisms that maintained the functional relations between the variables at the design scale, which in turn favoured the selection of artefacts suitable for effective weapons in a context where hunting was a strategy that optimized animal biomass acquisition, enhancing domestic herd viability.

An evolutionary perspective can be applied to the analysis of cultural phenomena to describe how inheritance mechanisms can account for the development of cultural traits in a given environment. This paper aims to describe the psychosocial functioning of the political system from this perspective, focusing on the role of politicians as cultural selectors. As they are in charge of legislation, politicians have a key role in steering the evolution of cultural norms. In particular they play a leading part in determining access to traditional forms of participation, such as parties. We interviewed a panel of political experts to explore the selective mechanisms shaping the Italian political system. The results show that co-option is the main method of selecting new members for parties, with the aim of keeping power within well-established structures. The specific features of the Italian political environment explain its decreasing ability to attract young activists.