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