Culture is a genetically evolved consequence of social learning adaptations.

Evidence

Rather than opposing “cultural” with “evolutionary” or “biological” explanations, researchers have now developed a rich body of work showing how natural selection, acting on genes, has shaped our psychology in a manner that generates nongenetic evolutionary processes capable of producing complex cultural adaptations. Culture, and cultural evolution, are then a consequence of genetically evolved psychological adaptations for learning from other people. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 139

Categorization

• DEFINE: Key framing: cultural explanations are a subset of evolutionary explanations, not opposed to them.
• XREF: connects to: Culture is the arbitrary dressing on universal survival functions. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 116; Mentalizing may have evolved for cultural learning rather than for social manipulation — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 191; Selective social learning yields group-level cultural accumulation beyond any individual’s knowledge — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 198 (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Human cumulative culture emerges from evolved domain-specific cognitive adaptations for social learning #corroborates (0.92) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 16
• Long postreproductive human lifespans evolved to transmit accumulated cultural knowledge. #exemplifies (0.82) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 446
• Observational learning enables cumulative cultural evolution of behaviors no individual could invent alone #expands (0.80) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 19
• Cultural variation between groups requires an adaptive explanation consistent with evolved psychology. #qualifies (0.76) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 8
• Cultural evolution has been the central driver of human genetic evolution for eons. #complicates (0.75) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 1015
• Cultural learning skills drove rapid human adaptation across all habitats #expands (0.72) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 125