Niche construction theory as an explanatory framework for human phenomena

Abstract

Niche Construction Theory (NCT) has been gaining acceptance as an explanatory framework for processes in biological and human evolution. Human cultural niche construction, in particular, is suggested as a basis for understanding many phenomena that involve human genetic and cultural evolution. Herein I assess the ability of the cultural niche construction framework to meet this explanatory role by looking into several NCT-inspired accounts that have been offered for two important episodes of human evolution, and by examining the contribution of NCT to the elucidation of two "primary examples" mentioned often in the NCT literature. The result, I claim, is rather disappointing: While NCT may serve as a descriptive framework for these phenomena, it cannot be said to explain them in any substantive sense. Especially disturbing is NCT's failure to account for differing developments in very similar situations, and to facilitate evaluation and discrimination between divergent and contradictory causal accounts of particular phenomena. I argue that these problems are inherent, and they render NCT unsuitable to serve as an explanatory framework for human phenomena. NCT's value, at least as related to human phenomena, is therefore descriptive and heuristic rather than explanatory. In conclusion, I discuss and reject comparisons made between NCT and the theory of natural selection, and examine several potential sources of NCT's explanatory weakness.

Operationalizing niche construction theory with stone tools

“…Although we see a lot of potential in NCT for extracting evolutionary meaning from the lithic record, it is not without some philosophical issues. First, it is unclear whether NCT as a scientific theory actually explains anything rather than just describing processes 116 . More specifically, one of the strongest critiques leveled at NCT is that it is too vague and general, allowing almost anything an organism does to qualify as niche construction 116 .…”

“…First, it is unclear whether NCT as a scientific theory actually explains anything rather than just describing processes 116 . More specifically, one of the strongest critiques leveled at NCT is that it is too vague and general, allowing almost anything an organism does to qualify as niche construction 116 . Moreover, the four categories are perhaps too permeable, something that NCT theorists also admit 117 .…”

Present-day African analogue of a pre-European Amazonian floodplain fishery shows convergence in cultural niche construction

“…We are not concerned with the merits, or lack thereof, of niche construction as a new paradigm in evolutionary theory (7); we use it as a heuristic concept for examining reciprocal feedbacks between actions of organisms and their environmental conditions (8). Culture amplifies the niche-constructing capacity of humans, who adapt to environments in large part by modifying the environments to suit their needs (9).…”

Niche construction in evolutionary theory: the construction of an academic niche?

“…Several of the points we raise in our critical 81 appraisal of the claims for NCT have been highlighted before (e.g. Dawkins 2004; Brodie III 82 2005;Wallach 2016), while others are, to our knowledge, novel. However, given how frequently 83 the claims for NCT are repeated, it is perhaps worth repeating the critiques of NCT, too.…”