The extension of biology through culture

Whiten, Andrew; Ayala, Francisco J.; Feldman, Marcus W.; Laland, Kevin N.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1707630114

Cited by 118 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 89 publications

(110 reference statements)

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“…Despite the obvious theoretical importance of innovation as a key element in cultural evolution, there are relatively few studies of this topic, particularly in wild populations, because of methodological difficulties in stimulating innovation experimentally or detecting innovations in observational studies (10). This paucity of information is partly because of the difficulty in creating operational definitions of innovation that can produce meaningful datasets for comparative analysis.…”

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confidence: 99%

Older, sociable capuchins (Cebus capucinus) invent more social behaviors, but younger monkeys innovate more in other contexts

Perry

Barrett

Godoy

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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An important extension to our understanding of evolutionary processes has been the discovery of the roles that individual and social learning play in creating recurring phenotypes on which selection can act. Cultural change occurs chiefly through invention of new behavioral variants combined with social transmission of the novel behaviors to new practitioners. Therefore, understanding what makes some individuals more likely to innovate and/or transmit new behaviors is critical for creating realistic models of culture change. The difficulty in identifying what behaviors qualify as new in wild animal populations has inhibited researchers from understanding the characteristics of behavioral innovations and innovators. Here, we present the findings of a long-term, systematic study of innovation (10 y, 10 groups, and 234 individuals) in wild capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus) in Lomas Barbudal, Costa Rica. Our methodology explicitly seeks novel behaviors, requiring their absence during the first 5 y of the study to qualify as novel in the second 5 y of the study. Only about 20% of 187 innovations identified were retained in innovators' individual behavioral repertoires, and 22% were subsequently seen in other group members. Older, more social monkeys were more likely to invent new forms of social interaction, whereas younger monkeys were more likely to innovate in other behavioral domains (foraging, investigative, and self-directed behaviors). Sex and rank had little effect on innovative tendencies. Relative to apes, capuchins devote more of their innovations repertoire to investigative behaviors and social bonding behaviors and less to foraging and comfort behaviors.innovation | Cebus capucinus | cultural evolution | phenotypic plasticity | learning B ehavioral innovation has long been a topic of interest for researchers dedicated to studying the evolution of culture, because it is a driver of cultural change (1, 2). The types of behavioral traditions that are of greatest interest to evolutionary modelers are those starting with an innovation that then spreads via social learning. Understanding the characteristics of (i) behavioral innovations (which are roughly analogous to genetic mutations) and (ii) the individuals who invent these behaviors is critical to understanding cultural evolution and its relationship to genetic evolution. Innovation is also of interest to evolutionary biologists who study the role that learning plays in macroevolution, because it is a type of phenotypic plasticity that can affect the direction of natural selection (3). Ability to innovate can enhance reproductive success (for example, by enabling individuals to exploit new resources) (4-6). Innovation can generate the Baldwin effect, in which learned traits create recurring phenotypes that select for morphological adaptations, eventually leading to speciation (3, 7). Innovation is also of interest as a correlate of intelligence more generally, and the ability to solve novel cognitive problems presented by experimenters can be positively ...

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confidence: 99%

Older, sociable capuchins (Cebus capucinus) invent more social behaviors, but younger monkeys innovate more in other contexts

Perry

Barrett

Godoy

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Extensive evidence has similarly accumulated for social learning and cultural traditions in many vertebrate and even invertebrate species [1,4,[5][6][7][8]: culture, in the sense of socially transmitted tradition, has been shown to be widespread in the animal kingdom [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The existence of such traditions depends upon two very different but complementary processes: first, some behavioural novelty must be created; then it must be repeatedly transmitted, diffusing amongst one or more populations [4,[9][10][11]. Legare and Nielsen [12] called these two contrasting processes -novel invention, and copying others -the 'dual engines' of culture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation and social transmission in experimental micro-societies: exploring the scope of cumulative culture in young children

McGuigan

Burdett

Burgess

et al. 2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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a.whiten@st-andrews.ac.uk 2 The experimental study of cumulative culture and the innovations essential to it is a young science, with child studies so rare that the scope of cumulative cultural capacities in childhood remains largely unknown. Here we report a new experimental approach to the inherent complexity of these phenomena. Groups of 3-4 year old children were presented with an elaborate array of challenges affording the potential cumulative development of a variety of techniques to gain increasingly attractive rewards. In contrast to a prior study, we found evidence for elementary forms of cumulative cultural progress, with inventions of solutions at lower levels spreading to become shared innovations, and some children then building on these to create more advanced but more rewarding innovations. This contrasted with markedly more constrained progress

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“…Middle Stone Age | Still Bay | Howiesons Poort | ecological niche modeling | paleoclimate R esearch on animal behavior has made it clear that culture represents a second inheritance system that may have changed the dynamics of evolution on a broad scale (1)(2)(3). Understanding how this process has affected the evolution of our genus is a major challenge in paleoanthropology.…”

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confidence: 99%

Identifying early modern human ecological niche expansions and associated cultural dynamics in the South African Middle Stone Age

d’Errico

Banks

Warren

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The archaeological record shows that typically human cultural traits emerged at different times, in different parts of the world, and among different hominin taxa. This pattern suggests that their emergence is the outcome of complex and nonlinear evolutionary trajectories, influenced by environmental, demographic, and social factors, that need to be understood and traced at regional scales. The application of predictive algorithms using archaeological and paleoenvironmental data allows one to estimate the ecological niches occupied by past human populations and identify niche changes through time, thus providing the possibility of investigating relationships between cultural innovations and possible niche shifts. By using such methods to examine two key southern Africa archaeological cultures, the Still Bay [76-71 thousand years before present (ka)] and the Howiesons Poort (HP; 66-59 ka), we identify a niche shift characterized by a significant expansion in the breadth of the HP ecological niche. This expansion is coincident with aridification occurring across Marine Isotope Stage 4 (ca. 72-60 ka) and especially pronounced at 60 ka. We argue that this niche shift was made possible by the development of a flexible technological system, reliant on composite tools and cultural transmission strategies based more on "product copying" rather than "process copying." These results counter the one niche/one human taxon equation. They indicate that what makes our cultures, and probably the cultures of other members of our lineage, unique is their flexibility and ability to produce innovations that allow a population to shift its ecological niche.Middle Stone Age | Still Bay | Howiesons Poort | ecological niche modeling | paleoclimate R esearch on animal behavior has made it clear that culture represents a second inheritance system that may have changed the dynamics of evolution on a broad scale (1-3). Understanding how this process has affected the evolution of our genus is a major challenge in paleoanthropology. In what ways, and through what phases of evolutionary history, has human culture extended beyond culture seen in other species? Are the cultural adaptations and associated cultural innovations that we observe in the archaeological record the direct consequence of our biological evolution, or are they the outcome of mechanisms largely independent of it? In our lineage, if cultural innovations were directly linked to classic Darwinian evolutionary processes, such as isolation, random mutation, selection, and speciation, one would expect a clear correspondence between the emergence of a new species and a related set of novel cultural behaviors. By shaping a new hominin species, natural selection would provide this species with a new cognitive setting resulting in the capacity for particular cultural innovations or behaviors. Such a mechanism would provide the possibility for cultural variability but would narrow its range of expression to the species' biologically dictated potential. Although some would still argue ...

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The extension of biology through culture

Cited by 118 publications

References 89 publications

Older, sociable capuchins (Cebus capucinus) invent more social behaviors, but younger monkeys innovate more in other contexts

Older, sociable capuchins (Cebus capucinus) invent more social behaviors, but younger monkeys innovate more in other contexts

Innovation and social transmission in experimental micro-societies: exploring the scope of cumulative culture in young children

Identifying early modern human ecological niche expansions and associated cultural dynamics in the South African Middle Stone Age

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