Culture has been a powerful selective force over the course of human evolution. Culture is defined as “a set of learned behaviours transmitted from one generation to the next through learning and not by biological and genetic means” (Lewis, Jurmain,& Kilgore, 2013, p. 433). In a concept known as biocultural evolution, “biology makes culture possible and developing culture further influences the direction of biological evolution” (Lewis et al., 2013, p. 432). Three specific examples of the selective force of culture are the cooperative sharing of essential resources, symbolically based communication, and the use of objects as tools.
Humans have been shown to be the only animals that systematically share food and other essential resources. Sustained cooperative sharing of food influenced the brain size of early members of the genus Homo. Because the brain takes up so much energy, development rates decrease as the size of the brain increases. Because of this, reproductive rate is reduced because the mother has to spend more of her time and
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In particular, the sharing of food, use of language, and use of fire and stone tools have all had a big impact as selective forces for humans. Most of our society today would not have been achieved without these cultural adaptations. Things like technology and the wide specialization of skills and knowledge that we have would not be at the sophisticated level that it is today. Without language, strong social groups, and the discovery of stone tools and weapons, our biological evolution would not have had as much selective force to lead us to where we are today. Historically, we have dealt with physical changes through many ways, most noticeably through the race model, which differentiates people based on their phenotypes. Religion and hierarchies is how we have dealt with our social changes, and our evolutionary changes have given us an anthropocentric view of
It has been believed that culture is unique to humans and no other groups of animals have culture, but recent evidence refutes this ideology. Before getting into the meat of the argument, it is important to first address the issues regarding the ambiguity of the term, “culture.” What is culture? Many scientists may argue that culture is the way of life for a group of individuals, this definition includes the values, beliefs and traditions of the group (Sapolsky, 2006). Other scientists may argue that culture is the transmission of habits and information by social means (Sapolsky, 2006). Despite the different specifics of what culture is, almost all scientists would agree that culture is transmitted socially through social learning that promotes the transfer of information between members in a group (Boesch and Tomasello, 1998). Based on these notions of culture, it can be justifiably stated that primates have culture. Primates exhibit food preparation techniques, use of tools, communication skills, and most importantly, behaviors of social learning. An exemplar of primates’ capabilities for culture is Koko, the lowland gorilla. Koko, in captivity, was able to learn American sign language, demonstrate self-awareness and the ability to deceive.
"Whereas animals are rigidly controlled by their biology, human behavior is largely determined by culture, a largely autonomous system of symbols and values, growing from a biological base, but growing indefinitely away from it. Able to overpower or escape biological constraints in most regards, cultures can vary from one another enough so that important portion...
Dunnell believed that evolutionary biology is a better method to explain evolution in cultural anthropology and archaeology rather than cultural evolution. The main problem with biological evolution is the dilemma of altruistic behavior in humans, which is the exact opposite of natural selection. Dunnell states that altruistic behavior is “the ultimate of the selfish principles” (Dunnell 1996: 26). The original solution to the issue of altruistic behavior was thought to be to change the scale of which natural selection works from that of the individual to the group. However, Dunnell gives three reasons why this change usually would not work. First, the individual, not the group, is the mean by which the reproductivity occurs. Second, the individual is the mean by which observable characteristics show themselves. Finally, changes in higher levels of ranking in society, such as that of the group, are too slow for ...
Over the years, culture shaped many features of our biological makeup. In turn, biology influenced culture. Because of this, humans are the outcome of everlasting interactions between culture and biology. These interactions are known as biocultural evolution. The study of human evolution involves many scientific disciplines including physical anthropology. Physical anthropology focuses on the interactions between culture and biology which shapes the way we live and interact. Modern humans have different characteristics of physical traits and behaviors. This allows modern humans to interact with each other in di...
As culture is being learned and transmitted from one generation to the next, there is the question as to how it is being learned? And does it change? Banking on the simplified definition of (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel, 2012) culture is learned through communication. This entails social interactions among people with common understanding of symbols, shared values and beliefs, and rules as a product of reciprocal information processing (Lustig, 2006).
Culture often means an appreciation of the finer things in life; however, culture brings members of a society together. We have a sense of belonging because we share similar beliefs, values, and attitudes about what’s right and wrong. As a result, culture changes as people adapt to their surroundings. According to Bishop Donald, “let it begin with me and my children and grandchildren” (211). Among other things, culture influences what you eat; how you were raised and will raise your own children? If, when, and whom you will marry; how you make and spend money. Truth is culture is adaptive and always changing over time because
Human Evolution. (2009). In R. Robinson (Ed.), Biology. New York: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/scic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow
Many of the most prominent critics of Evolutionary Psychology (Buller and Kaplan) are deeply skeptical of Evolutionary Psychology’s two defining tenets. The first tenet says the human mind is “massively modular,” composed of a myriad of independent, special purpose (“domain-specific”) modules, each evolved to help our ancestors survive and reproduce during the hunter-gather period of human evolution. The second tenet focuses on the idea that no subsequent cognitive adaptations to novel environments have occurred (Machery 2007; Rellihan 2012). According to prominent critic David Buller (2005), evolutionary psychologists think that humans are a le...
...its members to adhere to it could be established that it does in fact hold a huge influence over the way and nature we use our body. Culture through its system of symbols, that are structurally formed, through habitus, serves to teach us how to behave in order to become a fully fledged member of our given society. These symbols are further reinforced through the intuitions of family and education, the media, fashion and perceived societal norms. This affects the many ways in which we use our body, from the technique of walking through to sleeping, whilst also helping us to classify our social identity of gender and age. It is only through learning, continual practice and adhering to constant self control of one’s self, that we are able to do this successfully making every action we make a taken for granted “gymnastic art, perfected in our own day” (Mauss 1934:456).
...ctive, 2nd ed. (1971). The unique capacity for symboling that distinguishes humans from primates is discussed by Leslie A. White, "The Symbol: The Origin and Basis of Human Behavior," in his Science of Culture, 2nd ed., pp. 22-39 (1969); Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture (1944, reprinted 1974); and Terence Dixon and Martin Lucas, The Human Race (1982). The many conceptions of culture are discussed in A.L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn, Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions (1952, reprinted 1978). See also Leslie A. White and Beth Dillingham, The Concept of Culture (1973); and Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (1973, reissued 1975). The history of theory and method in social and cultural anthropology is traced in Fred W. Voget, A History of Ethnology (1975).
Evolution is the process through which the genetic makeup of a population changes over generations and is the key focus of paleoanthropologists who specialize in the study of human evolution. Random forces surrounding a particular population have been known to contribute substantially to evolutionary change, not to undermine the impact that adaptation, “a series of beneficial adjustments of organisms to their environment”, has on evolutionary processes. Adaptation is deeply tied to the theory of evolution through a process called natural selection, first theorized by Charles Darwin during his observation of various ecosystems around the world between 1831 and 1836. Natural selection is “the principle or mechanism by which individuals having biological characteristics best suited to a particular environment survive and reproduce with greater frequency than individuals without those characteristics”. Humans are unique in their ability to adapt to changes in their environment both biologically and culturally. As humans developed and continued to expand their territories of inhabitation, an increased
By definition, human evolution is the development, both biological and cultural, of humans. Human ideologies of how the evolution of man came to be is determined by cultural beliefs that have been adopted by societies going back as far as the Upper Paleolithic era, some 40,000 years ago. Through the study of paleoanthropology, we have come to determine that a human is any member belonging to the species of Homo Sapiens. Paleoanthropologists, while studying the evolution of humans, identify and explain evolutionary changes that occur throughout time that aid in the development of the human species. It will be through the examination of human physical traits, human origins from pre-humans to modern humans, and major discoveries that we will be able to understand the history of human evolution.
Culture has been a pervasive part of humanity since the beginning of civilization. Wood (2010), professor of communications, defines culture as "the totality of beliefs, values, understandings, practices, and ways of interpreting experience that are shared by a number of people" (p 78). The way I see it, culture shapes an individual and creates their worldview. Each culture emphasizes an important aspect of the humans and displays the complexities of our species. Even though culture includes many elements, I will discuss one of Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions, Individualism, and explain how it creates a high or low context culture.
In most time, culture is regarded as the product of human work. It could be the reason why the word “Culture” originates from Latin meaning farming. Interestingly, some researchers believe that culture is not the only possession of mankind because it seems to exist in animals as well after investigating their cultural behaviors. With the rapid development of anthropology and other related disciplines, scholars can gradually tell the difference between animal and human cultures and even generalize why human culture is quite unique. Therefore, when animal culture is in debate, it is usually judged much strictly from a human culture perspective as Laland and Hoppitt (2003:150) believed. This essay will argue that chimpanzees do not have their own culture at present even though there are evidences can show they are capable of social learning, and it is not clearly indicated that the variations in group behaviours are directly caused by socially transmitted cultural learning.