The evolution of cultural evolution

2003/01/01 by Joseph Henrich, Richard McElreath · 1 voice · 1,109 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Adaptation (eye) #Agriculture #Anthropology #Biology #Cultural Differences and Values #Ecology #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Evolutionary biology #Foraging #Geography #Homo erectus #Language and cultural evolution #Pleistocene #Population #Range (aeronautics) #Sociocultural evolution #Sociology #Subsistence agriculture

paper · doi:10.1002/evan.10110

published in Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews 12(3), 123-135 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2003/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Abstract Humans are unique in their range of environments and in the nature and diversity of their behavioral adaptations. While a variety of local genetic adaptations exist within our species, it seems certain that the same basic genetic endowment produces arctic foraging, tropical horticulture, and desert pastoralism, a constellation that represents a greater range of subsistence behavior than the rest of the Primate Order combined. The behavioral adaptations that explain the immense success of our species are cultural in the sense that they are transmitted among individuals by social learning and have accumulated over generations. Understanding how and when such culturally evolved adaptations arise requires understanding of both the evolution of the psychological mechanisms that underlie human social learning and the evolutionary (population) dynamics of cultural systems.

Citations

• Does Biology Constrain Culture?
• The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I
• The genetical evolution of social behaviour. II

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Discussions

• (Did I never post this tip here?) Do you like bibtex? Do you do doi? Do you want bibtex refs from doi on the command line? Yes you do, you wonderful monster. Try this line (adjust doi as needed, and [bsky, 99 points, 6 comments]

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