What is cultural evolution anyway?

Abstract

The term cultural evolution has become popular in the evolutionary human sciences, but it is often unclear what is meant by it. This is generating confusion and misconceptions that are hindering progress in the field. These include the claim that behavioral ecology disregards culture. We argue that these misunderstandings are caused by the unhelpful use of term cultural evolution to identify both a phenomenon—culture changing through time—and a theory to explain it—the potential role of cultural transmission biases in driving this change. We illustrate this point by considering recently published influential studies and opinion pieces. If we are to avoid confusion, the term cultural evolution is best reserved to identify the phenomenon of cultural change. This helps clarify that human behavioral ecologists do not disregard culture, but instead have studied its evolution from the very beginning. Different approaches to the study of human behavior can coexist and complement each other in the framework offered by Tinbergen’s four evolutionary questions. Clarifying key terms is crucial to achieve this synthesis.

Religious celibacy brings inclusive fitness benefits

“…So inclusive fitness is still a framework that potentially has predictive power with respect to the design of cultural phenotypes. Behavioural ecology models have long been used to increase our understanding of the diversity of human behaviour, including cultural behaviour [ 42 ], and here we have shown that inclusive fitness interests appear to play a role in shaping both parental preferences and the design of a costly religious institution. Inclusive fitness can help us to make predictions about the phenotypes of cultural institutions that develop in human populations [ 42 ].…”

“…So inclusive fitness is still a framework that potentially has predictive power with respect to the design of cultural phenotypes. Behavioural ecology models have long been used to increase our understanding of the diversity of human behaviour, including cultural behaviour [42], and royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspb Proc. R. Soc.…”

“…The trait could be—and most likely is—culturally transmitted. The aim of the model is to better understand to what extent it might have been shaped by inclusive fitness interests [ 42 ].…”

Cultural evolution research needs to include human behavioural ecology

“…It is sometimes suggested that behavioural ecology is unfit for the study of behaviour in our species, because it downplays or completely disregards the role of cultural evolution. As we have argued elsewhere (Micheletti, Brandl and Mace 2022), we believe that this is a misconception that stems from the unhelpful use of the term "cultural evolution" to indicate both a phenomenon -culture changing through time -and a theory to explain it -the central role played by transmission biases in shaping culture and an associated focus on cultural inheritance. Ambiguity surrounding this term is widespread both in the literature and in informal discussion, and we may even have been guilty of this ourselves.…”

Claude Lévi-Strauss as a humanist forerunner of cultural macroevolution studies

“…The latter could benefit, beyond the sophisticated analyses of big data mined from ethnographic work, from the integration with the intellectual legacy and practice of core anthropology and thus propitiate the synergistic interaction of disciplines. Attempts of rapprochement of disciplines from the natural sciences that lack pluralism and present a narrow view are deemed examples of 'Wilson's effect'.Social Media summary: Lévi-Strauss' anthropological work in its abstraction and modeling provides an example of the search for universals and big data analysisThe relatively new field of cultural evolution aims at understanding different aspects of human cumulative culture (Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman, 1981;Mesoudi, 2011;Antweiler, 2012;Lewens, 2015;Micheletti et al, 2022). The majority of studies of cultural evolution concern the processes that lead to cultural change within and among populations.…”