Gene-culture coevolutionary theory

Feldman, M. W.; Laland, Kevin N.

doi:10.1016/0169-5347(96)10052-5

Cited by 301 publications

(194 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…As a complete understanding of human behavioural diversity requires all four of Tinbergen's questions to be addressed, behavioural ecology and evolutionary psychology can potentially be viewed as both compatible and complementary. Indeed, from this perspective, one might add the evolutionary history perspective provided by comparative statistical methods [71], comparisons with other species [72] and gene-culture coevolution [47]. Collectively, these alternative approaches could provide a comprehensive understanding of behaviour.…”

Section: Integrating Evolutionary Perspectives On Human Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While advocates of massive modularity might perhaps envisage a conformity rule to be domain specific in a different sense-the domain being something like 'those social inputs on which humans might conform'-even this interpretation must acknowledge that the application of such a rule would cross-cut the more traditionally conceived domains of evolutionary psychology. Moreover, cultural evolutionists recognize a variety of processes that do not necessarily lead to adaptive outcomes [20,46,47], and accordingly do not expect context and content biases necessarily to converge on the same solutions.…”

Section: (I) Variation and Universalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evolutionary accounts of human behavioural diversity

Brown

Dickins

Sear

et al. 2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Human beings persist in an extraordinary range of ecological settings, in the process exhibiting enormous behavioural diversity, both within and between populations. People vary in their social, mating and parental behaviour and have diverse and elaborate beliefs, traditions, norms and institutions. The aim of this theme issue is to ask whether, and how, evolutionary theory can help us to understand this diversity. In this introductory article, we provide a background to the debate surrounding how best to understand behavioural diversity using evolutionary models of human behaviour. In particular, we examine how diversity has been viewed by the main subdisciplines within the human evolutionary behavioural sciences, focusing in particular on the human behavioural ecology, evolutionary psychology and cultural evolution approaches. In addition to differences in focus and methodology, these subdisciplines have traditionally varied in the emphasis placed on human universals, ecological factors and socially learned behaviour, and on how they have addressed the issue of genetic variation. We reaffirm that evolutionary theory provides an essential framework for understanding behavioural diversity within and between human populations, but argue that greater integration between the subfields is critical to developing a satisfactory understanding of diversity.

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Section: Integrating Evolutionary Perspectives On Human Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (I) Variation and Universalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary accounts of human behavioural diversity

Brown

Dickins

Sear

et al. 2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They also constructed models whereby individuals transform cultural traits in particular, non-random directions ('guided variation', in contrast to random genetic mutation). Finally, they explored the interaction between genetic and cultural evolution, examining the conditions under which social learning might genetically evolve, which led to analyses of specific cases of gene-culture coevolution (Feldman and Laland 1996;Laland et al 2010). …”

Section: The Theory Of Cultural Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Evolution: A Review of Theory, Findings and Controversies

2015

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The last two decades have seen an explosion in research analysing cultural change as a Darwinian evolutionary process. Here I provide an overview of the theory of cultural evolution, including its intellectual history, major theoretical tenets and methods, key findings, and prominent criticisms and controversies. 'Culture' is defined as socially transmitted information. Cultural evolution is the theory that this socially transmitted information evolves in the manner laid out by Darwin in The Origin of Species, i.e. it comprises a system of variation, differential fitness and inheritance. Cultural evolution is not, however, neo-Darwinian, in that many of the details of genetic evolution may not apply, such as particulate inheritance and random mutation. Following a brief history of this idea, I review theoretical and empirical studies of cultural microevolution, which entails both selection-like processes wherein some cultural variants are more likely to be acquired and transmitted than others, plus transformative processes that alter cultural information during transmission. I also review how phylogenetic methods have been used to reconstruct cultural macroevolution, including the evolution of languages, technology and social organisation. Finally, I discuss recent controversies and debates, including the extent to which culture is proximate or ultimate, the relative role of selective and transformative processes in cultural evolution, the basis of cumulative cultural evolution, the evolution of large-scale human cooperation, and whether social learning is learned or innate. I conclude by highlighting the value of using evolutionary methods to study culture for both the social and biological sciences.

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“…Investigating social learning in animals is also of broad relevance for understanding animal behaviour, cognition and evolution. By altering ecological or social environment, social learning dynamics can have a direct impact on evolutionary dynamics in a process known as cultural niche construction (Laland et al 2000) that can lead to coevolutionary processes between cultures and genes ( Feldman & Laland 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Network-based diffusion analysis: a new method for detecting social learning

2009

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Social learning has been documented in a wide diversity of animals. In free-living animals, however, it has been difficult to discern whether animals learn socially by observing other group members or asocially by acquiring a new behaviour independently. We addressed this challenge by developing network-based diffusion analysis (NBDA), which analyses the spread of traits through animal groups and takes into account that social network structure directs social learning opportunities. NBDA fits agent-based models of social and asocial learning to the observed data using maximum-likelihood estimation. The underlying learning mechanism can then be identified using model selection based on the Akaike information criterion. We tested our method with artificially created learning data that are based on a real-world co-feeding network of macaques. NBDA is better able to discriminate between social and asocial learning in comparison with diffusion curve analysis, the main method that was previously applied in this context. NBDA thus offers a new, more reliable statistical test of learning mechanisms. In addition, it can be used to address a wide range of questions related to social learning, such as identifying behavioural strategies used by animals when deciding whom to copy.

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Gene-culture coevolutionary theory

Cited by 301 publications

References 29 publications

Evolutionary accounts of human behavioural diversity

Evolutionary accounts of human behavioural diversity

Cultural Evolution: A Review of Theory, Findings and Controversies

Network-based diffusion analysis: a new method for detecting social learning

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