
The Dynamics of Cultural Evolution
The Central Role of Purposive Behaviors
Series: Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation; 12;
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Product details:
- Edition number 1st ed. 2022
- Publisher Springer
- Date of Publication 10 July 2022
- Number of Volumes 1 pieces, Book
- ISBN 9783031048623
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages203 pages
- Size 235x155 mm
- Weight 494 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 6 Illustrations, black & white; 4 Illustrations, color 427
Categories
Short description:
This book explores the nature of cultural and culturally structured social and behavioral entities, their evolutionary interactions, and the central role purposive behaviors play in those interactions. It, first, makes the case for cultural and cultural structured systems being considered as true entities bounded in time and space, and not ephemera in a constant state of becoming another system. Second, it examines how these entities interact to produce evolutionary culture change. It then argues that the intent of purposive behaviors is reliably knowable in the aggregate, at least when dealing with expressions of behavioral tendencies in the animal kingdom, humans included. Finally, the book references well documented behavioral tendencies for examples of proximate causation in the evolution of settled village societies and, following that, socially complex societies. Through these efforts, the book synthesizes the various approaches to the evolution of culture and providesa complete and comprehensive picture of the process. It provides a corrective to the tendency to view cultural systems as entirely open ended and as capable of changing in any direction; and also to treating cultural evolution as solely a result of selective forces, that is, in terms of only ultimate causation. This book provides an engaging and critical counterview to established theories of cultural evolution and is of interest to scholars and students of different disciplines, from anthropology and archeology, to evolutionary biology and epigenetics.
MoreLong description:
This book explores the nature of cultural and culturally structured social and behavioral entities, their evolutionary interactions, and the central role purposive behaviors play in those interactions. It, first, makes the case for cultural and cultural structured systems being considered as true entities bounded in time and space, and not ephemera in a constant state of becoming another system. Second, it examines how these entities interact to produce evolutionary culture change. It then argues that the intent of purposive behaviors is reliably knowable in the aggregate, at least when dealing with expressions of behavioral tendencies in the animal kingdom, humans included. Finally, the book references well documented behavioral tendencies for examples of proximate causation in the evolution of settled village societies and, following that, socially complex societies. Through these efforts, the book synthesizes the various approaches to the evolution of culture and provides a completeand comprehensive picture of the process. It provides a corrective to the tendency to view cultural systems as entirely open ended and as capable of changing in any direction; and also to treating cultural evolution as solely a result of selective forces, that is, in terms of only ultimate causation. This book provides an engaging and critical counterview to established theories of cultural evolution and is of interest to scholars and students of different disciplines, from anthropology and archeology, to evolutionary biology and epigenetics.
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Table of Contents:
- 1. Introduction. - 2. The Evolution of Evolutionary Theory in Biology. - 3. Borrowing from Biology. - 4. That Complex Whole: The Structure of Culture and the Kinds of Cultural and Culturally Structured Entities. - 5. That Complex Whole and its Evolutionary Dynamics. - 6. The Deaths and Births of Cultural Systems. - 7. Chance, Agency, and Loaded Dice. - 8. Proximate Causation and Pattern Part I: The Paths to Food Production. - 9. Proximate Causation and Pattern Part 2: The Paths to Social Complexity. - 10. Agency, Proximate Causation, and the Sloshing Bucket.
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