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Bestseller
BestsellerE-book
Author Boyd, Robert, 1948-

Title The origin and evolution of cultures / Robert Boyd, Peter J. Richerson.

Publication Info. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (viii, 456 pages) : illustrations.
data file
Physical Medium polychrome
Series Evolution and cognition
Evolution and cognition.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references at chapter ends, and indexes.
Contents Part 1: Evolution of social learning ; Social learning as an adaptation -- Why does culture increase human adaptability? -- Why culture is common, but cultural evolution is rare -- Climate, culture, and the evolution of cognition -- Norms and bounded rationality -- Part 2: Ethnic groups and markers ; Evolution of ethnic markers -- Shared norms and the evolution of ethnic markers / with Richard McElreath -- Part 3: Human cooperation, reciprocity, and group selection ; Evolution of reciprocity in sizable groups -- Punishment allows the evolution of cooperation (or anything else) in sizable groups -- Why people punish defectors : weak conformist transmission can stabilize costly enforcement of norms in cooperative dilemmas / with Joseph Henrich -- Can group-functional behaviors evolve by cultural group selection? an empirical test / with Joseph Soltis -- Group-beneficial norms can spread rapidly in a structured population -- Evolution of altruistic punishment / with Herbert Gintis and Samuel Bowles -- Cultural evolution of human cooperation / with Joseph Henrich -- Part 4: Archaeology and culture history ; How microevolutionary processes give rise to history -- Are cultural phylogenies possible? / with Monique Borgerhoff Mulder and William H. Durham -- Was agriculture impossible during the Pleistocene but mandatory during the Holocene? a climate change hypothesis / with Robert L. Bettinger -- Part 5: Links to other disciplines -- Rationality, imitation, and tradition -- Simple models of complex phenomena : the case of cultural evolution -- Memes : universal acid or a better mousetrap?
Summary Oxford presents, in one convenient and coherently organized volume, 20 influential but until now relatively inaccessible articles that form the backbone of Boyd and Richerson's path-breaking work on evolution and culture. Their interdisciplinary research is based on two notions. First, that culture is crucial for understanding human behavior; unlike other organisms, socially transmitted beliefs, attitudes, and values heavily influence our behavior. Secondly, culture is part of biology: the capacity to acquire and transmit culture is a derived component of human psychology, and the contents of culture are deeply intertwined with our biology. Culture then is a pool of information, stored in the brains of the population that gets transmitted from one brain to another by social learning processes. Therefore, culture can account for both our outstanding ecological success as well as the maladaptations that characterize much of human behavior. The interest in this collection will span anthropology, psychology, economics, philosophy, and political science.
Access Use copy. MiAaHDL
Reproduction Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL
System Details Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
Processing Action digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve MiAaHDL
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Language English.
Subject Social evolution.
Social evolution.
Culture -- Origin.
Culture -- Origin.
Human evolution.
Human evolution.
Sociobiology.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
Sociobiology.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
Genre/Form Electronic book.
Electronic books.
Added Author Richerson, Peter J.
McElreath, Richard, 1973-
Henrich, Joseph Patrick.
Soltis, Joseph Mark, 1962-
Gintis, Herbert.
Bowles, Samuel.
Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff.
Durham, William H.
Bettinger, Robert L.
Other Form: Print version: Boyd, Robert, 1948- Origin and evolution of cultures. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005 0195165241 019518145X (DLC) 2004043408 (OCoLC)54487389
ISBN 9781423756859 (electronic book)
1423756851 (electronic book)
9781280560552 (electronic book)
128056055X (electronic book)
9786610560554 (electronic book)
6610560552 (electronic book)
9780195347449 (electronic book)
0195347447 (electronic book)
9781433700583 (electronic book)
1433700581 (electronic book)
9780199883127 (electronic book)
0199883122 (electronic book)
9780195165241 (alkaline paper)
0195165241 (alkaline paper)
9780195181456 (paperback)
019518145X (paperback)
0195165241
9780195165241
019518145X
9780195181456
Standard No. 9780195165241
9780195181456