The Evolution of Cultural Novelty (I and II)

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     Last modified: April 21, 2005
     Presentation date: 07/14/2005 9:15 AM in ROZH 105
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Abstract
These sessions address cultural evolution and the generation of cultural novelty.

The three authors in Session I deal with mechanisms of cultural variation and their significance for explaining cultural novelty. What processes generate and constrain cultural variation? How do mechanisms of cultural variation interact with processes of selection? Kim Sterelny argues that constraints on cultural variation help explain why some cultural practices that would be adaptive have failed to evolve. Ben Jeffares explores how the generation of cultural variation is sensitive to the way that agents assess risk. Kenneth Reisman discusses trade-offs between variation and selection in explanations of cultural novelty.

The three authors in Session II work together to provide complementary perspectives on that elephant which is the evolution of hybrid lineages in our socio-techno-cultural complex. Their three respective research programs focus on: reproducers (Griesemer), core configurations of social groups (Caporael), and the generative entrenchment and evolutionary stabilization of things upon which many other elements come to depend (Wimsatt). The integration of these research programs provides a competing view of evolutionary processes to those provided by gene's-eye, meme's-eye, or uneasy compound-eye aggregates of these. Griesemer, Caporael and Wimsatt approach problems of how larger techno-cultural complexes, and reticulate rich symbolic orders tempting ''thick descriptions'', can be created, maintained, and elaborated which are not addressed successfully or at all by such views. They aim for a dynamical and modelable account of significant generality. They also address how cultural evolution can proceed so rapidly, and a closely linked problem, how deep revolutionary changes-both positive innovations and negative consequences-are enormously easier and more likely in socio-techno-cultural entities than in biological lineages.

Multiple Paper Session:
Papers in this session:
When Does Cultural Selection Explain Cultural Novelty?
Cultural Variation and Epistemic Access
Constraints on Cultural Adaptation
Reproducers and the evolutionary development of culture
Core Configurations that Can Think, Learn and Create
Generative Entrenchment and the scaffolding of individual development and social institutions