- Published: 30 April 2024
- ISBN: 9780262551908
- Imprint: MIT Press Academic
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 504
- RRP: $130.00
Cultural Evolution
Society, Technology, Language, and Religion
- Published: 30 April 2024
- ISBN: 9780262551908
- Imprint: MIT Press Academic
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 504
- RRP: $130.00
This ambitious and wide-ranging collection provides challenging theoretical discussions of the mechanisms of cultural evolution, including its complex relationship with biological evolution. It includes some comprehensive and reliable surveys of the current state of knowledge in four relevant domains—social structure, technology, language, and religion—that do not shirk from identifying unsolved problems. It is thus a promising basis on which the ongoing study of cultural evolution can proceed.
—James R. Hurford, Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University of Edinburgh
Cultural evolutionary studies explore selection, change, transmission, and inheritance in a variety of settings, including social systems, technology, language, and religion. Do such studies offer an integrated perspective capable of making sense of such superficially diverse phenomena? What kinds of models are required, and how can we distinguish the good ones from the bad? This volume provides a perfect window onto these important debates. A must-read for anyone interested in the scientific study of human behavior.
—Andy Clark, FRSE Professor of Logic and Metaphysics, University of Edinburgh