PROBLEMS OF CULTURAL EVOLUTION

The Evolution of Cultural Evolution

In 1860, aiming to be the first Europeans to travel south to north across Australia, Robert Burke led an extremely well-equipped expedition of three men (King, Wills and Gray) from their base camp in Cooper’s Creek in central Australia with five fully loaded camels (specially imported) and one horse. Figuring a maximum round trip travel time of three months, they carried twelve weeks of food an...

Cultural commons and cultural evolution

Culture evolves following a process that is akin to biological evolution, although with some significant differences. At the same time culture has often a collective good value for human groups. This paper studies culture in an evolutionary perspective, with a focus on the implications of group definition for the coexistence of different cultures. A model of cultural evolution is presented wher...

Cultural Evolution

Cultural Evolution

Our understandings of civilizations on Earth inevitably influence speculation about extraterrestrial civilizations. Specifically, our assumptions about the development of Earth’s societies continually shape our conjectures about alien societies, on topics including the probability of their existence, their possible characteristics, appropriate search strategies, and the wisdom of seeking contac...

Cultural Evolution of Language

This chapter argues that an evolutionary cultural approach to language not only has already proven fruitful, but it probably holds the key to understand many puzzling aspects of language, its change and origins. The chapter begins by highlighting several still common misconceptions about language that might seem to call into question a cultural evolutionary approach. It explores the antiquity o...