Cultural variation between groups requires an adaptive explanation consistent with evolved psychology.

Evidence

Despite the continued prevalence of these assumptions within anthropology, there has been little effort to explain the existence of cultural variation between groups in terms that are consistent with the assumption that the psychological mechanisms that create and maintain such variation are evolved adaptations. In this article, we provide one evolutionary explanation for why people in the same group have similar ideas, values, behaviors and why these endure through time. — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 8

Categorization

• QUESTION: This frames the 1998 paper’s core move — what is the exact adaptationist model that follows?
• XREF: connects to: Cumulative cultural evolution drives selection for brains specialized to acquire cultural information. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 218; Cultural economic packages drive genetic differences even between nearby populations — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 311; Adaptive complexity can come from cumulative culture, not genes or intention — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 384 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Explaining intergroup cultural variation requires analysis at two coupled levels #expands (0.90) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 12
• Evolutionary psychology explains present psychological processes as adaptations to ancestral environmental problems. #expands (0.88) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 489
• Human cumulative culture emerges from evolved domain-specific cognitive adaptations for social learning #corroborates (0.86) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 16
• Cultural evolution can lock groups into maladaptive equilibria, not just prosocial ones #complicates (0.82)
• Cultural evolution can spread maladaptive behaviors that destroy social cooperation #complicates (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 447
• Distinct group types evolved to fulfill distinct psychological needs #exemplifies (0.78)
• Cultural evolution can create selection pressures stronger than natural ones #complicates (0.75) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 282