Sociological limits and prospects of contemporary cultural evolutionary theory

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8975722
AutoresTibor Rutar (0000-0002-5022-0373, Department of Sociology University of Maribor Maribor Slovenia, autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume51
Fascículo4
Páginas636-653
Data de publicação2021-10-04
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal for the Theory of Social Behaviour (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0021-8308 • E-ISSN: 1468-5914
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jtsb.12326
OpenAlexW3202174716
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas48

What can sociology learn about the logic of social behaviour from the field of cultural evolution? How can sociology enrich cultural evolutionary theory? In this article, I present and examine cultural evolutionary theory by specifying its various proposed mechanisms, such as cultural drift, biased transmission and cultural selection (including cultural group selection), and by investigating concrete examples of social phenomena to which the theory has been applied. My findings are three‐fold. First, cultural evolutionary mechanisms should not be dismissed by sociologists but instead, given their strong explanatory power in certain cases, incorporated into their basic theoretical toolkit. Second, one mechanism, i.e. cultural selection, can even underpin a more nuanced and micro‐founded sociological functionalism that avoids some of the errors of structural functionalism. This, however, should not be celebrated too soon as the applicability of cultural selection is more limited than cultural evolutionists acknowledge. Third, drawing on historical sociology and comparative politics I also uncover further important sociological limitations of the cultural evolutionary approach that should be heeded by the latter. I focus on two: (1) its inapplicability to cases of intentional decision‐making and strategizing, and (2) its inability to subsume the phenomenon of social power

Cultural analysis · Cultural anthropology · Cultural transmission in animals · Epistemology · Evolutionism · Functionalism (philosophy of mind · Phenomenon · Selection (genetic algorithm · Social science · Sociocultural evolution · Sociological theory · Sociology · Sociology of culture · Structural functionalism · Anthropology · Computer Science · Cultural Differences and Values · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Language and cultural evolution · Philosophy