Evolutionary Perspectives on Imaginative Culture

Contents
About the Editors
Contributors
Introduction
1 What Imaginative Culture Is and Why It Matters
2 The Historical and Disciplinary Context for Evolutionary Research on Imaginative Culture
3 Content and Plan of the Volume
4 A Biocultural Toolkit
4.1 Tinbergen’s Four Categories for Ethological Analysis
4.2 Comparative Methods for Illuminating Human Nature
4.3 Individual Identity
5 Organization of the Volume
6 Directions for Further Research
References
Part I: Imagination: Evolution, Mechanisms, and Functions
Imagination, the Brain’s Default Mode Network, and Imaginative Verbal Artifacts
1 Introduction
2 Globularization, Imagination, and Behavioral Modernity
3 The Brain’s Default Mode Network
4 Core Processes of Imagination
4.1 Simulation, Mental Time Travel, and Perspective Taking
4.2 Stegner’s Angle of Repose: Simulation, Mental Time Travel, Perspective Taking
5 Literary Forms of Dreaming, Mind-Wandering, Autobiographical Narrative, and Counterfactual Thinking
6 Conclusion: The Adaptive Functions of Imagination and of Literature
References
The Evolution of Imagination and Fiction Through Generativity and Narrative
1 Cognition, Memory, and Prediction
2 Narrative, Identity, and Worldview
3 Belief, Reality Monitoring, and Absorption
4 Motivation, Culture, and Niche Construction
5 Evolutionary Functions of Fiction
6 Mental Time Travel, Theory of Mind, and Language
7 Creativity
8 Conclusions
References
Imagination, Symbolic Cognition, and Human Evolution: The Early Arts Facilitated Group Survival
1 Imagination and Its Components: Localized and Interconnected Neural Networks in the Brain
2 Evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa: The Dependence on the Imagination
3 Ochre Clay, Color Pigments, and Symbolic Cognition: An Early Art Expression
4 Evolutionary Pressures: Sealing Social Cracks with Imagination and Art
5 The Arts Did Not Emerge All at Once: Symbolic Communication and Stages in Art Practices
5.1 Painting the Body: Color-Related
5.2 Symbolic Message of Unity: Group Kinetic Synchronization
5.3 Music-Related Symbols of Unity: Sound Rhythms and Musical Chorality
5.4 Unity of Thoughts and Actions: Storytelling and Theater-Like Acting
6 Summary and Conclusions
References
Part II: Myth and Religion
Mimesis and Myth: Evolutionary Roots of Psychological Self-Understanding
1 Social Reputation and the Attribution of Traits
2 Mimesis
3 Language, Story, and Myth
4 Narrating the Self
5 Conclusion
References
Imagining the Gods
References
Part III: Aesthetic Theory
Key Stimuli and Power Objects: Aesthetics and Our Innate Sensibilities
1 Key Stimuli and Inborn Sensibilities
2 Human Beauty
3 Inverted Triangles and Hourglass Figures: The Key Stimuli of the Body
4 Colors as Key Stimuli
5 Shapes, Materials, and Textures
6 The Beautiful Landscape: The Good Habitat
7 Disgust and Aversion
8 Key Narratives and Universal Alpha Themes in Fiction
9 Simulation Seeking and Habituation: The Evolution and Variation of Artistic Expression
10 Making Special: Concluding Remarks
References
The Role of Aesthetic Style in Alleviating Anxiety About the Future
1 What Is Style?
2 Perception and Information
3 Style and Prediction
4 Conclusion: Some Predictions
References
Part IV: Music
Music and the Evolution of Embodied Cognition
1 Archaeology
2 Adaptation
3 Structures
4 Neural Systems
5 Emotion
6 Aesthetics
References
Part V: Visual and Plastic Arts
The Influence of Image Salience on the Artistic Renditions of Cave Lions in the Early Upper Paleolithic
1 The Implications of Innate Face Recognition and Contextual Assessment
2 Contextual Figure-Ground Segmentation
3 Sources of Natural Selection Promoting Felid Recognition
4 Effects of Prolonged Relaxed Selection on Felid Salience
5 Experimental Studies of Human Responses to Lion Images
6 Cave Lion Portrayals in the Early Upper Paleolithic
7 Conclusion
References
Evolutionary Constraints on Creativity in the Visual and Plastic Arts
1 Evolutionary Constraints on Creativity in the Visual and Plastic Arts
2 Evolutionary Origins and their Relevance to Understanding Present-Day Art
3 Variety Versus Commonalities in Human Art
4 Candidate Aesthetic Universals: Products, Processes, and Sociocultural Functions
4.1 Products
4.2 Processes
4.3 Sociocultural Functions
5 Static Rigidity Versus Dynamic Flexibility in Aesthetic Universals
6 Tensions between Radical Novelty and Aesthetic Biases
7 Ways Out of the Impasse
8 Conclusion
References
Part VI: Video Games and Films
“Unbreakable, Incorruptible, Unyielding”: Doom as an Agency Simulator
1 Agency: Real and Virtual
2 Doom as an Agency Simulator
3 Gameplay
4 Audio
5 Narrative
6 Conclusion
References
Cliodynamics and Dramatic Performances
1 A Cliodynamic Approach to Ritual Experience
2 Dysphoric Dramatic Performances, 1950–1980
References
Part VII: Oral Narratives and Literature
Descent with Imagination: Oral Traditions as Evolutionary Lineages
1 Folktale Phylogenetics
2 Folktales, Languages, and Genes: The Plot Thickens
3 The Endurance of Oral Traditions
References
I’m with You Till the End of the Line: The Romanticization of Male Bonds
1 Societal Benefits of Male–Male Bonds
2 Male Bonds in Fiction
3 Women and the Romance of Bromance … The Heart of Slash Fiction
4 Why Do Women Sexualize the Bromance?
4.1 Popular Culture and Literary Approaches
4.2 Evolutionary Approaches to the Romanticization of the Bonds Between Men
5 How Bromance Is Romanticized: Subgenres, Plot Devices, and What They Tell Us
6 Conclusions
References
Literary Representations of Parental Investment: Fitness Quandaries and Strategic Decisions
1 The Value of Offspring
2 Costs of Parental Investment
3 Preferential Parental Investment
4 Quality and Effectiveness of Parental Investment
References
Why the World Is a Better Place with Stephen King in It: An Evolutionary Perspective
1 The Divided Reception of Stephen King
2 The Uses of King’s Horror: An Evolutionary Perspective
3 Charting the Dark Corners of the Psychological World: Pet Sematary
4 Moral Calibration: Agonistic Structure in It
5 The Value of King and Directions for Future Research
References
Heart of Darkness: Joseph Conrad’s Confrontation with Amoral Nature
1 Heart of Darkness (1899)
2 Conclusion
References
Index