内容简介 · · · · · ·
In this book, Kate Distin proposes a theory of cultural evolution and shows how it can help us to understand the origin and development of human culture. Distin introduces the concept that humans share information not only in natural languages, which are spoken or signed, but also in artefactual languages like writing and musical notation, which use media that are made by humans. Languages enable humans to receive and transmit variations in cultural information and resources. In this way, they provide the mechanism for cultural evolution. The human capacity for metarepresentation - thinking about how we think - accelerates cultural evolution, because it frees cultural information from the conceptual limitations of each individual language. Distin shows how the concept of cultural evolution outlined in this book can help us to understand the complexity and diversity of human culture, relating her theory to a range of subjects including economics, linguistics, and developmental biology.
Author(s): Kate Distin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 282
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Contents
Cultural Evolution
1 Introduction: “Small Consequences of One General Law”
Towards a Better Understanding of Culture
Part I The Inheritance of Cultural Information
2 What Is Information?
Information Theory, Biology and Culture
Associative Learning and Innate Knowledge
Discrete Representational Knowledge
Prescriptive versus Descriptive Information
Genes: First among Causal Equals?
3 How Is Information Inherited?
Genetic Inheritance Systems
Epigenetic Inheritance Systems
Ecological Inheritance Systems
Developmental Inheritance Systems
Behavioural Inheritance Systems
Genetically Mediated Inheritance
Linguistic Inheritance Systems
Cultural Inheritance
Does Evolution Really Need Discrete Representation?
Part II The Inheritance of Cultural Information: Natural Language
4 Natural Language and Culture: The Biological Building Blocks
Representation
Imitation
Physiology
Sociality and Cooperation
Theory of Mind
Cultural Preadaptations
5 How Did Natural Language Evolve?
Instinctive Communication
Critical Period
Communication versus Interpretation
Communication versus Representation
Language Evolution: Biological or Cultural?
Compositionality
Conclusions
6 Language, Thought and Culture
Language and Cognition: Emotions
Language and Cognition: Colour Perception
Language and Cognition: Language Learning
Language and Cognition: Spatial Cognition
Language and Culture
Contact Linguistics
Metarepresentation
Part III The Inheritance of Cultural Information: Artefactual Language
7 How Did Artefactual Language Evolve?
The Biology of Artefactual Representation
The Power of Metarepresentation
The Evolution of Writing
Proto-Writing and Social Context
From Proto-Writing to Writing
Writing: Communication and Representation
Speech: Communication and Representation
8 Artefactual Language, Representation and Culture
Longevity and Fecundity
Capacity
Capacity: Swap Space
Capacity: Scaffolding
Accuracy: Interpretation versus Expression
Music
Dialects of Artefactual Languages
Detachment
Education, Technology and Development
Functional Links
9 Money: An Artefactual Language
Money and Barter
The Medium of Exchange
The Measurement of Value
The Derivation of Value
Credit Money
Fiat Money
The Functional Relationship
Moneys Cultural Evolution
Different Forms of Money
Money: Value, Exchange and Trust
10 Money: The Explanatory Power of Artefactual Languages
The Effects of Currency on Trade
Money and Biology
Money Size Illusion
Money in Society, Money in Relationships
Money as a Gift
Eurovision: A Diversion
Money and Status
The Survival of the Joneses
Part IV The Receivers of Cultural Information
11 How Does Human Diversity Affect Cultural Evolution?
The Metarepresentation Spectrum
Metarepresentation and Cultural Transmission
Metarepresentation, Genetic Fitness and Artefactual Languages
Nature and Nurture
Metarepresentation and Education
Cultural Agents and Cultural Diversity
Part V The Expression of Cultural Information
12 Aspects of the Cultural Ecology
Cultural Units
Cultural Receivers
Environmental Factors
Technological Evolution
Example 1: A Brief History of the Mobile Phone
Example 2: VHS and Betamax
Technological Evolution as the Expression of Evolving Cultural Information
Cultural Clusters
Polythetic Classes and Family Resemblance
13 Patterns of Cultural Taxonomy
Biological Taxonomy
Organism versus Gene Taxonomy
Reticulate Prokaryotic Evolution
Viral Taxonomy
Species versus Ecological Clusters
Cultural Inheritance Mechanisms
Cultural Phylogenies
The Mechanisms of Cultural Isolation
Carving Culture at Its Joints
14 Conclusion: A Representational Understanding of Cultural Evolution
Cultural Evolution
Heritable Information in Nature
The Mechanisms of Cultural Inheritance
Metarepresentation and Nonhuman Culture
Social versus Functional Links
Cultural Taxonomy
The Origin of Culture
Appendix: What about Memetics?
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index