The Origins and Evolution of Culture

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2458752
AutoresW Penn Handwerker (Cal Poly Humboldt, autor de correspondencia)
Año1989
Volumen91
Número2
Páginas313-326
Fecha de publicación1989-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Anthropologist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7294 • E-ISSN: 1548-1433
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/aa.1989.91.2.02a00020
OpenAlexW2009901454
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas28
Referencias citadas14

This article outlines a deductive theory that creates a new way to think about the origins and evolution of culture. It is Darwinian in the sense that it posits that novel concepts and behavior, like novel genes, appear randomly and are subject to selection on the basis of specific criteria that are established by the properties of living things. The theory permits us to hypothesize properties of the genome that generate culture and to infer the conditions under which selection would favor the origins of culture. Theoretical deductions lead to the conclusion that the organisms that create culture actively participate in the creation of descendants who exhibit increasing cultural abilities and who generate increases in productivity and more reliable flows of resources. Culture is not something that has evolved solely and relatively recently in the hominid line of evolution. Fossil evidence suggests that culture may have existed at least 50 million years ago, and may have originated more than 200 million years ago

Biological evolution · Biology · Darwinism · Economics · Epistemology · Evolutionary biology · Productivity · Selection (genetic algorithm · Sociology · Subject (documents · Computer Science · Evolution and Science Education · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Genetics · Language and cultural evolution · Philosophy