Human cumulative culture emerges from evolved domain-specific cognitive adaptations for social learning

Evidence

In humans, social learning gives rise to cumulative cultural change not seen in other animals, and, as a result, understanding human evolution requires new principles not relevant to the study of other species (Boyd and Richerson 1996). This does not mean that humans have somehow transcended biology. Quite to the contrary, we can construct a foundation for emergent cultural phenomena by understanding the evolution of complex cognitive adaptations. Evolutionary psychology proposes that all brains, including human brains, consist of numerous domain-specific mental processors designed by natural selection to solve problems that were recurrent in the evolutionary past. Cultural transmission mechanisms represent a kind of special purpose adaptation constructed to selectively acquire information and behavior by observing other humans and inferring the mental states that give rise to their behavior. — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 16

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets up the conceptual frame that cultural transmission mechanisms are special-purpose evolved adaptations, the premise the paper then models.
• XREF: Cites Boyd and Richerson’s framework, the direct antecedent to Henrich’s later popular treatment; frames the whole paper against evolutionary psychology’s modularity thesis. — connects to: 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; Accumulating culture continuously drives selection for bigger brains and better learners — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 206 (+19 more)

Broader Connections

• Observational learning enables cumulative cultural evolution of behaviors no individual could invent alone #expands (0.85) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 19
• Cultural learning skills drove rapid human adaptation across all habitats #corroborates (0.78) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 125
• Human evolution selected for learnability and behavioral malleability, not fixedness #expands (0.75)