Evolution, Culture, and the Human Mind

by Schaller, Mark; Norenzayan, Ara; Heine, Steven J.; Yamagishi, Toshio

• ISBN13: 9780203848746
• ISBN10: 0203848748
• Copyright: 2009-08-25
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

An enormous amount of scientific research compels two fundamental conclusions about the human mind: The mind is the product of evolution; and the mind is shaped by culture. These two perspectives on the human mind are not incompatible, but, until recently, their compatibility has resisted rigorous scholarly inquiry. Evolutionary psychology documents many ways in which genetic adaptations govern the operations of the human mind. But evolutionary inquiries only occasionally grapple seriously with questions about human culture and cross-cultural differences. By contrast, cultural psychology documents many ways in which thought and behavior are shaped by different cultural experiences. But cultural inquires rarely consider evolutionary processes. Even after decades of intensive research, these two perspectives on human psychology have remained largely divorced from each other. But that is now changing - and that is what this book is about. Evolution, Culture, and the Human Mindis the first scholarly book to integrate evolutionary and cultural perspectives on human psychology. The contributors include world-renowned evolutionary, cultural, social, and cognitive psychologists. These chapters reveal many novel insights linking human evolution to both human cognition and human culture including the evolutionary origins of cross-cultural differences. The result is a stimulating introduction to an emerging integrative perspective on human nature.

Table of Contents

Introduction

How Evolution and Culture Fit Together

Towards a Cultural/Evolutionary Psychology: Cooperation and Complementarity

The Human Mind and the Evolution of Cultural Animals

Collective Evolution: Revisiting Donald Campbell's Legacy

Cultural Evolution: Why Are Some Cultural Variants More Successful Than Others?

From Genes to Memes: Psychology at the Nexus

Evolutionary Bases of Cultural Phenomena

Exploring the Evolutionary Foundations of Culture: An Adaptationist Framework

Teach these Souls to Fly: Supernatural as Human Adaptation

The Birth of High Gods: How the Cultural Evolution of Supernatural Policing Influenced the Emergence of Complex, Cooperative Human Societies, Paving the Way for Civilization

Social Selection and the Origins of Culture

Are Our Minds Fundamentally Egalitarian? Adaptive Bases of Different Socio-Cultural Models about Distributive Justice

Evolutionary Universals and Cross-Cultural Differences

Color in Mind, Culture and Language

An Institutional Approach to Culture

Cultural Consequences of Voluntary Settlement in the Frontier: Evidence and Implications

Cultural Inertia, Economic Incentives, and the Persistence of "Southern Violence"

Infectious Diseases and the Evolution of Cross-Cultural Differences

Universal Mechanisms and Cultural Diversity: Replacing the Blank Slate with a Coloring Book

Indexes

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