understanding culture from a selectionist view language, memetics, & gene-culture coevolution
Post on 22-Dec-2015
212 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Understanding Culture from a Selectionist View
Language, Memetics, Language, Memetics, & Gene-Culture & Gene-Culture
CoevolutionCoevolution
Darwin thought human language was instinctual
Behaviourist perspective Skinner & operant conditioning
Cognitivist perspective Chomsky & Language Acquisition
Device
The Language DebateThe Language Debate
Why study human language at all?Cognitive revolution
“Go-ed” vs. “went”Culturalist vs. nativist extremism
How many words does the “Eskimo” language have for snow?
2, 9, 48, 100, or 200? Pidgins & creoles
Importance & AcquisitionImportance & Acquisition
The Origins of Human The Origins of Human LanguageLanguage
Noam Chomsky Innate but not necessarily adaptive
Steven Pinker Adapted for sharing information
Merlin Donald Outcome of “mimesis” & neural
plasticityGeoffrey Miller
Verbal courtship as a sexual display
Memetics (1)Memetics (1)Dawkins introduced the concept in the final
chapter of his text The Selfish Gene: “We need a name for the new replicator,
a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. ‘Mimeme’ comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like ‘gene’. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme.”
What is a meme? Analogous to a gene, a meme is a
replicator subject to selection Information or instructions for
behaviour Living structure (not metaphorically)
Longevity, fecundity, and copying fidelityMay spread “parasitically” by a variety of
processes, particularly imitation
Memetics (2)Memetics (2)
Issues with MemeticsIssues with MemeticsMemes have fuzzy boundaries
So do genesMemes often merge together
So do genes (through introgression or horizontal transfer via viruses)
Memetic selection is nonrandom So is artificial selection (e.g., research
on Drosophila)Little empirical work has been performed
Gene-Culture Coevolution (1)Gene-Culture Coevolution (1)Classic memetic theory assumes
independence of the meme from the host Hence, memes do not need to have a
relationship with the fitness of the hostHowever, extending the meme analogy to
viruses (infectiousness, host susceptibility, and social environment) converges on the same position as gene-culture coevolutionists
Coevolutionary theory is highly mathematical in nature, based on theoretical population genetics
From this perspective, genetical and cultural evolution have mutual effects on each other
Mode of cultural transmission may be vertical, oblique, or horizontal
Moreover, transmission is nonrandom: pay-off biased or conformist
Gene-Culture Coevolution (2)Gene-Culture Coevolution (2)
Future DirectionsFuture DirectionsThe evolution and adaptive significance
of language is still being hotly debatedMemetics and gene-culture
coevolutionary theory may provide new avenues for research Human diversity Unique place of humans in the animal
kingdom
The Wrap-UpThe Wrap-UpDebate over the acquisition of languageOrigins of languageMemeticsGene-culture coevolution
Things to ComeThings to ComeSexual Orientation
The debate over sexual orientation Neurological evidence Genetic Factors Elder brother effect
top related