Understanding culture across species.
Recent claims of culture in great apes have provoked fervent argument about the 'true' definition of culture, most of which has been unhelpful. Instead, a range of definitions should be used to explore different aspects of the cognitive processes that together result in human culture, many of which can be productively studied in non-humans. A richer cognitive account of the contents of culture needs to be developed and used to compare animal and human cultures, instead of sterile searching for a cognitive Rubicon between them. Exploring six views of culture, this article highlights the fundamental contrast of whether culture evolves as a by-product of cumulative change in cognitive mechanisms, or whether it is actively selected for its advantages.
Byrne
Richard W
RW
Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JU, UK. rwb@st-andrews.ac.uk <rwb@st-andrews.ac.uk>
Barnard
Philip J
PJ
Davidson
Iain
I
Janik
Vincent M
VM
McGrew
William C
WC
Miklósi
Adam
A
Wiessner
Polly
P
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003469:Culture; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D012919:Social Behavior