Cumulative cultural adaptations cannot be improvised by individuals in years.

Evidence

In addition, not all religious rituals necessarily involve synchrony, as there are other reasons why rituals are important for religious and cultural life. This is exactly what would be expected if these practices were cobbled together by cultural evolution over historical time, rather than the product of genetic adaptations unique to religion. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 381 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

To hunt seals, you first have to find their breathing holes in the ice. It’s important that the area around the hole be snow covered—otherwise the seals will hear you and vanish. You then open the hole, smell it to verify that it’s still in use (what do seals smell like?), and then assess the shape of the hole using a special curved piece of caribou antler. The hole is then covered with snow, save for a small gap at the top that is capped with a down indicator. If the seal enters the hole, the indicator moves, and you must blindly plunge your harpoon into the hole using all your weight. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 110 (#instantiates, via linked claim)

The contrast with our lost European explorers could hardly be starker. One lone woman equipped with only the cumulative know-how of her ancestors survived for eighteen years whereas fully provisioned and well-financed teams of experienced explorers struggled in Australia, Texas, and the Arctic. These diverse cases testify to the nature of our species’ adaptation. During eons of relying on large bodies of cumulative cultural knowledge, our species became addicted to this cultural input; without culturally transmitted knowledge about how to locate and process plants, fashion tools from available materials, and avoid dangers, we don’t last long as hunter-gatherers. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 134 (#builds-on, via linked claim)

Categorization

• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Cultural accumulation made individual ingenuity insufficient for survival.; Lone individuals with ancestral know-how out-survive well-provisioned expert teams. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 134; Seal hunting through ice requires skills no one can improvise in years. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 110 (+2 more)

Related

• Lone individuals with ancestral know-how out-survive well-provisioned expert teams. (similarity 0.80)
• Faith in cultural inheritance improves survival only in cumulative-culture species (similarity 0.79)
• Religious rituals were assembled by cultural evolution, not genetic adaptation. (similarity 0.79)
• Cultural learning skills drove rapid human adaptation across all habitats (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Religious rituals were assembled by cultural evolution, not genetic adaptation. #corroborates (0.82) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 381