Subjective selection and the evolution of complex culture

Bibliographic Data

ID18940904
AuthorsManvir Singh (0000-0002-6026-947X, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse Université de Toulouse 1 Capitole Toulouse France, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume31
Issue6
Pages266-280
Publication date2022-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEvolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1060-1538 • E-ISSN: 1520-6505
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/evan.21948
PMID36165208
OpenAlexW4297260160
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited102

Why is culture the way it is? Here I argue that a major force shaping culture is subjective (cultural) selection , or the selective retention of cultural variants that people subjectively perceive as satisfying their goals. I show that people evaluate behaviors and beliefs according to how useful they are, especially for achieving goals. As they adopt and pass on those variants that seem best, they iteratively craft culture into increasingly effective‐seeming forms. I argue that this process drives the development of many cumulatively complex cultural products, including effective technology, magic and ritual, aesthetic traditions, and institutions. I show that it can explain cultural dependencies, such as how certain beliefs create corresponding new practices, and I outline how it interacts with other cultural evolutionary processes. Cultural practices everywhere, from spears to shamanism, develop because people subjectively evaluate them to be effective means of satisfying regular goals

Aesthetics · Art · Craft · Epistemology · MAGIC (telescope) · Process (computing) · Selection (genetic algorithm) · Shamanism · Sociology · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · History · Language and cultural evolution · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOI