Cultural Transmission

A View from Chimpanzees and Human Infants

Bibliographic Data

ID2313750
AuthorsM Tomasello (0000-0002-1649-088X, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume32
Issue2
Pages135-146
Publication date2001-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0221 • E-ISSN: 1552-5422
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022022101032002002
OpenAlexW2158642869
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited31

Human beings are biologically adapted for culture in ways that other primates are not, as evidenced most clearly by the fact that only human cultural traditions accumulate modifications over historical time (the ratchet effect). The key adaptation is one that enables individuals to understand other individuals as intentional agents like the self. This species-unique form of social cognition emerges in human ontogeny at around 1 year of age as infants begin to engage with other persons in various kinds of joint attentional activities involving gaze following, social referencing, and gestural communication. Young children's joint attentional skills then engender some uniquely powerful forms of cultural learning, enabling the acquisition of language, discourse skills, tool use practices, and many other conventional activities. These novel forms of cultural learning allow human beings to pool their cognitive resources both contemporaneously and over historical time in ways that are unique in the animal kingdom

Adaptation (eye · Biology · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Cultural learning · Cultural transmission in animals · Developmental psychology · Gaze · Joint attention · Social learning · Child and Animal Learning Development · Communication · Language and cultural evolution · Neuroscience · Primate Behavior and Ecology · Psychology

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