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==View of culture==
People have defined the word "culture" to describe a large set of different phenomena.<ref>Kroeberm A. and C. Kluckhohn. 1952. ''Culture; A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions.'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref><ref>Fox, R. and B. King. 2002. ''Anthropology Beyond Culture'' Oxford: Berg.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref> A definition that sums up what is meant by "culture" in DIT is:
{{Quotation|Culture is socially learned information stored in individuals' brains that is capable of affecting behavior.<ref>Richerson, P. and R. Boyd. 2005. ''Not By Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pg 6.</ref><ref>Boyd, R. and P. Richerson. 2000. Memes: Universal Acid or a Better Mouse Trap? In R. Aunger, Ed. ''Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 143-162. [https://web.archive.org/web/20000817023031/http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/boyd/CambMeme.PDF Full text]</ref>}}
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'''Lactase persistence'''
One of the best known examples is the prevalence of the genotype for adult lactose absorption in human populations, such as Northern Europeans and some African societies, with a long history of raising cattle for milk. Until around 7,500 years ago,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Itan|first1=Yuval|last2=Powell|first2=Adam|last3=Beaumont|first3=Mark A.|last4=Burger|first4=Joachim|last5=Thomas|first5=Mark G.|date=2009-08-28|title=The Origins of Lactase Persistence in Europe|journal=PLOS Computational Biology|volume=5|issue=8|pages=e1000491|doi=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000491|issn=1553-7358| pmc=2722739 |pmid=19714206|bibcode=2009PLSCB...5E0491I |doi-access=free }}</ref> lactase production stopped shortly after weaning,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Malmström|first1=Helena|last2=Linderholm|first2=Anna|last3=Lidén|first3=Kerstin|last4=Storå|first4=Jan|last5=Molnar|first5=Petra|last6=Holmlund|first6=Gunilla|last7=Jakobsson|first7=Mattias|last8=Götherström|first8=Anders|date=2010-01-01|title=High frequency of lactose intolerance in a prehistoric hunter-gatherer population in northern Europe|journal=BMC Evolutionary Biology|volume=10|issue=1 |pages=89|doi=10.1186/1471-2148-10-89|issn=1471-2148| pmc=2862036 |pmid=20353605 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2010BMCEE..10...89M }}</ref> and in societies which did not develop dairying, such as East Asians and Amerindians, this is still true today.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/mace-lab/resources/glad/LP_maps|title=Maps|website=www.ucl.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2017-03-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328105300/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/mace-lab/resources/glad/LP_maps|archive-date=2017-03-28|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gerbault|first1=Pascale|last2=Roffet-Salque|first2=Mélanie|last3=Evershed|first3=Richard P.|last4=Thomas|first4=Mark G.|date=2013-12-01|title=How long have adult humans been consuming milk?|journal=IUBMB Life|language=en|volume=65|issue=12|pages=983–990|doi=10.1002/iub.1227|pmid=24339181|s2cid=34564411|issn=1521-6551|doi-access=free}}</ref> In areas with lactase persistence, it is believed that by domesticating animals, a source of milk became available while an adult and thus strong selection for lactase persistence could occur;<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Bersaglieri|first1=Todd|last2=Sabeti|first2=Pardis C.|author2-link=Pardis Sabeti|last3=Patterson|first3=Nick|last4=Vanderploeg|first4=Trisha|last5=Schaffner|first5=Steve F.|last6=Drake|first6=Jared A.|last7=Rhodes|first7=Matthew|last8=Reich|first8=David E.|last9=Hirschhorn|first9=Joel N.|date=2017-03-27|title=Genetic Signatures of Strong Recent Positive Selection at the Lactase Gene|journal=American Journal of Human Genetics|volume=74|issue=6|pages=1111–1120|doi=10.1086/421051|issn=0002-9297| pmc=1182075 |pmid=15114531}}</ref> in a Scandinavian population, the estimated [[selection coefficient]] was 0.09-0.19.<ref name=":1" /> This implies that the cultural practice of raising cattle first for meat and later for milk led to [[Lactose intolerence#Evolutionary history|selection for genetic traits for lactose digestion]].<ref>Laland, K. N. and G. R. Brown. 2002. ''Sense & Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 260</ref> Recently, analysis of natural selection on the human genome suggests that civilization has accelerated genetic change in humans over the past 10,000 years.<ref>Cochran, G. and H. Harpending. 2009. ''The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution.'' Basic Books.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref>
'''Food processing'''
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===Cultural drift===
[[Cultural drift]] is a process roughly analogous to [[genetic drift]] in evolutionary biology.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Koerper | first1 = H. | last2 = Stickel | first2 = E. | year = 1980 | title = Cultural Drift: A Primary Process of Culture Change | journal = Journal of Anthropological Research | volume = 36 | issue = 4| pages = 463–469 | doi = 10.1086/jar.36.4.3629615 | s2cid = 163932368 }}</ref><ref name="CavalliSfornza">Cavalli-Sfornza, L. and M. Feldman. 1981. ''Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach''. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref><ref name="artsci.wustl">{{cite journal |last1=Bentley |first1=R. Alexander |last2=Hahn |first2=Matthew W. |last3=Shennan |first3=Stephen J. |title=Random drift and culture change |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences |date=22 July 2004 |volume=271 |issue=1547 |pages=1443–1450 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2004.2746 |pmid=15306315 |pmc=1691747 }}</ref> In cultural drift, the frequency of cultural traits in a population may be subject to random fluctuations due to chance variations in which traits are observed and transmitted (sometimes called "sampling error").<ref name="duke">{{cite journal | last1 = Hahn | first1 = M.W. | last2 = Bentley | first2 = R. A. | year = 2003 | title = Drift as a mechanism for cultural change: An example from baby names | url = http://www.duke.edu/~mwh3/BabyNames.pdf | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society B | volume = 270 | issue = Suppl 1 | pages = S120–S123 |doi=10.1098/rsbl.2003.0045 | pmid=12952655 | pmc=1698036}}</ref> These fluctuations might cause cultural variants to disappear from a population. This effect should be especially strong in small populations.<ref>Boyd, R. and P. J. Richerson. 1985. '' Culture and the Evolutionary Process''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp.9, 69</ref> A model by Hahn and Bentley shows that cultural drift gives a reasonably good approximation to changes in the popularity of American baby names.<ref name="duke" /> Drift processes have also been suggested to explain changes in archaeological pottery and technology patent applications.<ref name="artsci.wustl" /> Changes in the songs of song birds are also thought to arise from drift processes, where distinct dialects in different groups occur due to errors in songbird singing and acquisition by successive generations.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1016/B978-0-08-045337-8.00056-5 |chapter=Vocal Learning |title=Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior |date=2010 |last1=Slater |first1=P.J.B. |last2=Janik |first2=V.M. |pages=551–557 |isbn=978-0-08-045337-8 }}</ref> Cultural drift is also observed in an early computer model of cultural evolution.<ref>Gabora, L. (1995). [http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/liane/papers/mav.htm Meme and variations: A computer model of cultural evolution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110828070047/http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/liane/papers/mav.htm |date=2011-08-28 }}. In (L. Nadel & D. Stein, Eds.) ''1993 Lectures in Complex Systems'', Addison-Wesley, 471-486.</ref>
===Guided variation===
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===Biased transmission===
Understanding the different ways that culture traits can be transmitted between individuals has been an important part of DIT research since the 1970s.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Feldman | first1 = M. | author-link2 = Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza | last2 = Cavalli-Sforza | first2 = L. | year = 1976 | title = Cultural and biological evolutionary processes, selection for a trait under complex transmission | journal = Theoretical Population Biology | volume = 9 | issue = 2| pages = 238–259 | doi=10.1016/0040-5809(76)90047-2 | pmid=1273802| bibcode = 1976TPBio...9..238F }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Feldman | first1 = M | last2 = Cavalli-Sfornza | first2 = L. | year = 1977 | title = The evolution of continuous variation: II, complex transmission and assortive mating | journal = Theoretical Population Biology | volume = 11 | issue = 2| pages = 161–181 | doi=10.1016/0040-5809(77)90024-7| pmid = 867286 | bibcode = 1977TPBio..11..161F }}</ref> Transmission biases occur when some cultural variants are favored over others during the process of cultural transmission.<ref name="Boyd">Boyd, R., and P. Richerson. 1985. ''Culture and the Evolutionary Process''. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref> Boyd and Richerson (1985)<ref name="Boyd" /> defined and analytically modeled a number of possible transmission biases. The list of biases has been refined over the years, especially by Henrich and McElreath.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Henrich |first1=Joseph |last2=McElreath |first2=Richard |title=The evolution of cultural evolution |journal=Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews |date=January 2003 |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=123–135 |doi=10.1002/evan.10110 }}</ref>
====Content bias====
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==Social learning and cumulative cultural evolution==
In DIT, the evolution of culture is dependent on the evolution of social learning. Analytic models show that social learning becomes evolutionarily beneficial when the environment changes with enough frequency that genetic inheritance can not track the changes, but not fast enough that individual learning is more efficient.<ref>Richerson, P.J. and R. Boyd. 2000. Climate, culture, and the evolution of cognition. In C.M. Heyes and L. Huber, (Eds), ''The Evolution of Cognition.'' Massachusetts: MIT Press.</ref> For environments that have very little variability, social learning is not needed since genes can adapt fast enough to the changes that occur, and innate behaviour is able to deal with the constant environment.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kerr |first1=Benjamin |last2=Feldman |first2=Marcus W. |title=Carving the Cognitive Niche: Optimal Learning Strategies in Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Environments |journal=Journal of Theoretical Biology |date=January 2003 |volume=220 |issue=2 |pages=169–188 |doi=10.1006/jtbi.2003.3146 |pmid=12468290 |bibcode=2003JThBi.220..169K }}</ref> In fast changing environments cultural learning would not be useful because what the previous generation knew is now outdated and will provide no benefit in the changed environment, and hence individual learning is more beneficial. It is only in the moderately changing environment where cultural learning becomes useful since each generation shares a mostly similar environment but genes have insufficient time to change to changes in the environment.<ref name=":7" /> While other species have social learning, and thus some level of culture, only humans, some birds and chimpanzees are known to have cumulative culture.<ref>Tomasello, M. 1999. ''The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref> Boyd and Richerson argue that the evolution of cumulative culture depends on observational learning and is uncommon in other species because it is ineffective when it is rare in a population. They propose that the environmental changes occurring in the [[Pleistocene]] may have provided the right environmental conditions.<ref name=":7">{{cite book | last1 = Richerson | first1 = P. J. | last2 = Boyd | first2 = R. | title = Perspectives in Ethology | chapter = Built for Speed: Pleistocene Climate Variation and the Origin of Human Culture | year = 2000 | volume = 13 | pages = 1–45 | doi=10.1007/978-1-4615-1221-9_1| isbn = 978-1-4613-5447-5 }}</ref> Michael Tomasello argues that cumulative cultural evolution results from a [[ratchet effect]] that began when humans developed the cognitive architecture to understand others as mental agents.<ref>Tomasello, M. 1999. ''The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref> Furthermore, Tomasello proposed in the 80s that there are some disparities between the observational learning mechanisms found in humans and great apes - which go some way to explain the observable difference between great ape traditions and human types of culture (see [[Emulation (observational learning)]]).
==Cultural group selection==
{{details|topic=cultural group selection|Cultural group selection}}
Although [[group selection]] is commonly thought to be nonexistent or unimportant in genetic evolution,<ref>[[George C. Williams (biologist)|Williams, G.C.]] 1972. ''[[Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought]]''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-02357-3}}</ref><ref>[[George C. Williams (biologist)|Williams, G.C.]] 1986. ''Evolution Through Group Selection.'' Blackwell. {{ISBN|0-632-01541-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Maynard Smith | first1 = J. | author-link = John Maynard Smith | year = 1964 | title = Group selection and kin selection | journal = [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] | volume = 201 | issue = 4924| pages = 1145–1147 | doi=10.1038/2011145a0 | bibcode=1964Natur.201.1145S| s2cid = 4177102 }}</ref> DIT predicts that, due to the nature of cultural inheritance, it may be an important force in cultural evolution. Group selection occurs in cultural evolution because conformist biases make it difficult for novel cultural traits to spread through a population (see above section on transmission biases). Conformist bias also helps maintain variation between groups. These two properties, rare in genetic transmission, are necessary for group selection to operate.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Uyenoyama | first1 = M. | last2 = Feldman | first2 = M. W. | year = 1980 | title = Theories of kin and group selection: a population genetics perspective | journal = Theoretical Population Biology | volume = 17 | issue = 3| pages = 380–414 | doi=10.1016/0040-5809(80)90033-7| pmid = 7434256 | bibcode = 1980TPBio..17..380U }}</ref> Based on an earlier model by Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Cavalli-Sforza | first1 = L. L. | last2 = Feldman | first2 = M. W. | year = 1973 | title = Models for cultural inheritance. I. Group mean and within group variation | journal = Theoretical Population Biology | volume = 4 | issue = 1| pages = 42–44 | doi=10.1016/0040-5809(73)90005-1| pmid = 4726009 | bibcode = 1973TPBio...4...42C }}</ref> Boyd and Richerson show that conformist biases are almost inevitable when traits spread through social learning,<ref>Boyd, R. and P. J. Richerson. 1985. '' Culture and the Evolutionary Process''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pg. 227–240.</ref> implying that group selection is common in cultural evolution. Analysis of small groups in New Guinea imply that cultural group selection might be a good explanation for slowly changing aspects of social structure, but not for rapidly changing fads.<ref name="Soltis">{{cite journal | last1 = Soltis | first1 = J. | last2 = Boyd | first2 = R. | last3 = Richerson | first3 = P. J. | year = 1995 | title = Can group-functional behaviors evolve by cultural group selection? An empirical test | url = http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/richerson/SoltisBoydRichersonCA95.pdf | journal = Current Anthropology | volume = 36 | issue = 3| pages = 473–494 | doi=10.1086/204381| s2cid = 43998139 }}</ref> The ability of cultural evolution to maintain intergroup diversity is what allows for the study of cultural phylogenetics.<ref>Mace, R., C. Holden, and S. Shennan (Eds.) 2005. ''The evolution of cultural diversity: a phylogenetic approach. '' London:University College London Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref>
==Historical development==
In 1876, [[Friedrich Engels]] wrote a manuscript titled [[The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man]], accredited as a founding document of DIT;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Foster |first=John |title=Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature |publisher=Monthly Review Press |year=2000 |isbn=9781583670125 |___location=New York |pages=203}}</ref> “The approach to gene-culture coevolution first developed by Engels and developed later on by anthropologists…” is described by [[Stephen Jay Gould]] as “…the best nineteenth-century case for gene-culture coevolution.”<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gould |first=Stephen |title=An Urchin in the Storm |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=1987 |isbn=0-393-02492-X |___location=New York |pages=111–112}}</ref> The idea that human cultures undergo a similar evolutionary process as genetic evolution also goes back to [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]].<ref>Darwin, C. 1874. ''The descent of man and selection in relation to sex.'' 2nd ed. 2 vols. New York: American Home Library.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref> In the 1960s, [[Donald T. Campbell]] published some of the first theoretical work that adapted principles of evolutionary theory to the evolution of cultures.<ref>Campbell, D. 1965. Variation and selective retention in socio-cultural evolution. In ''Social change in developing areas: A reinterpretation of evolutionary theory'', ed. H. Barringer, G. Blanksten, and R. Mack, 19-49. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing Company.</ref> In 1976, two developments in cultural evolutionary theory set the stage for DIT. In that year [[Richard Dawkins|Richard Dawkins's]] ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'' introduced ideas of cultural evolution to a popular audience. Although one of the best-selling science books of all time, because of its lack of mathematical rigor, it had little effect on the development of DIT. Also in 1976, geneticists [[Marcus Feldman]] and [[Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza]] published the first dynamic models of gene–culture coevolution.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Feldman | first1 = M. | last2 = Cavalli-Sforna | first2 = L. | year = 1976 | title = Cultural and biological evolutionary processes, selection for a trait under complex transmission | journal = Theoretical Population Biology | volume = 9 | issue = 2| pages = 238–59 | doi=10.1016/0040-5809(76)90047-2 | pmid=1273802| bibcode = 1976TPBio...9..238F }}</ref> These models were to form the basis for subsequent work on DIT, heralded by the publication of three seminal books in the 1980s.
The first was Charles Lumsden and [[E. O. Wilson|E.O. Wilson's]] ''Genes, Mind and Culture''.<ref>Lumsden C., and E. Wilson. 1981. ''Genes, Mind and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process.'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref> This book outlined a series of mathematical models of how genetic evolution might favor the selection of cultural traits and how cultural traits might, in turn, affect the speed of genetic evolution. While it was the first book published describing how genes and culture might coevolve, it had relatively little effect on the further development of DIT.<ref name="Laland">Laland K. and G. Brown. 2002. ''Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref> Some critics felt that their models depended too heavily on genetic mechanisms at the expense of cultural mechanisms.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Boyd | first1 = R. | last2 = Richerson | first2 = P. | year = 1983 | title = The cultural transmission of acquired variation: effects on genetic fitness | journal = Journal of Theoretical Biology | volume = 100 | issue = 4| pages = 567–96 | doi=10.1016/0022-5193(83)90324-7| pmid = 6876815 | bibcode = 1983JThBi.100..567B }}</ref> Controversy surrounding Wilson's [[Sociobiology#Controversy|sociobiological theories]] may also have decreased the lasting effect of this book.<ref name="Laland" />
The second 1981 book was [[Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza|Cavalli-Sforza]] and Feldman's ''Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach''.<ref name="CavalliSfornza" /> Borrowing heavily from [[population genetics]] and [[epidemiology]], this book built a mathematical theory concerning the spread of cultural traits. It describes the evolutionary implications of [[vertical transmission]], passing cultural traits from parents to offspring; oblique transmission, passing cultural traits from any member of an older generation to a younger generation; and [[horizontal transmission]], passing traits between members of the same population.
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{{Quotation|"In many ways the most complex and potentially rewarding of all approaches, [DIT], with its multiple processes and cerebral onslaught of sigmas and deltas, may appear too abstract to all but the most enthusiastic reader. Until such a time as the theoretical hieroglyphics can be translated into a respectable empirical science most observers will remain immune to its message."<ref>Laland, K. N. and G. R. Brown. 2002. ''Sense & Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 290.</ref>}}
Economist [[Herbert Gintis]] disagrees with this critique, citing empirical work as well as more recent work using techniques from [[behavioral economics]].<ref>Herb Gintis Amazon.com review: https://www.amazon.com/review/product/0198508840/</ref> These behavioral economic techniques have been adapted to test predictions of cultural evolutionary models in laboratory settings<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McElreath |first1=Richard |last2=Lubell |first2=Mark |last3=Richerson |first3=Peter J. |last4=Waring |first4=Timothy M. |last5=Baum |first5=William |last6=Edsten |first6=Edward |last7=Efferson |first7=Charles |last8=Paciotti |first8=Brian |title=Applying evolutionary models to the laboratory study of social learning |journal=Evolution and Human Behavior |date=November 2005 |volume=26 |issue=6 |pages=483–508 |doi=10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.04.003 |bibcode=2005EHumB..26..483M }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Efferson |first1=C |last2=Lalive |first2=R |last3=Richerson |first3=P |last4=Mcelreath |first4=R |last5=Lubell |first5=M |title=Conformists and mavericks: the empirics of frequency-dependent cultural transmission |journal=Evolution and Human Behavior |date=January 2008 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=56–64 |doi=10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.08.003 |bibcode=2008EHumB..29...56E |s2cid=2107499 |url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/3943/10/ConformistsMavericksV.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Baum |first1=William M. |last2=Richerson |first2=Peter J. |last3=Efferson |first3=Charles M. |last4=Paciotti |first4=Brian M. |title=Cultural evolution in laboratory microsocieties including traditions of rule giving and rule following |journal=Evolution and Human Behavior |date=September 2004 |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=305–326 |doi=10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2004.05.003 |bibcode=2004EHumB..25..305B }}</ref> as well as studying differences in cooperation in fifteen small-scale societies in the field.<ref name="Henrich_a">Henrich, J., R. Boyd, S. Bowles, C. Camerer, E. Fehr, H. Gintis (Eds). 2004. ''Foundations of Human Sociality: Economic Experiments and Ethnographic Evidence from Fifteen Small-Scale Societies'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref>
Since one of the goals of DIT is to explain the distribution of human cultural traits, [[ethnography|ethnographic]] and [[ethnology|ethnologic]] techniques may also be useful for testing hypothesis stemming from DIT. Although findings from traditional ethnologic studies have been used to buttress DIT arguments,<ref>Cavalli-Sfornza, L. L. and M. Feldman. 1981. ''Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach.'' Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref><ref>Boyd, R. and P. J. Richerson. 1985. '' Culture and the Evolutionary Process''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref> thus far there have been little ethnographic fieldwork designed to explicitly test these hypotheses.<ref name="Soltis" /><ref name="Henrich_a" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mcelreath |first1=Richard |title=Social Learning and the Maintenance of Cultural Variation: An Evolutionary Model and Data from East Africa |journal=American Anthropologist |date=June 2004 |volume=106 |issue=2 |pages=308–321 |doi=10.1525/aa.2004.106.2.308 }}</ref>
Herb Gintis has named DIT one of the two major conceptual theories with potential for unifying the behavioral sciences, including economics, biology, anthropology, sociology, psychology and political science. Because it addresses both the genetic and cultural components of human inheritance, Gintis sees DIT models as providing the best explanations for the ultimate cause of human behavior and the best paradigm for integrating those disciplines with evolutionary theory.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gintis |first1=Herbert |title=A framework for the unification of the behavioral sciences |journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences |date=February 2007 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=1–16 |doi=10.1017/s0140525x07000581 |pmid=17475022 }}</ref> In a review of competing evolutionary perspectives on human behavior, Laland and Brown see DIT as the best candidate for uniting the other evolutionary perspectives under one theoretical umbrella.<ref name="Laland_a">Laland, K. N. and G. R. Brown. 2002. ''Sense & Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 287-319.</ref>
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===Human sociobiology and evolutionary psychology===
Evolutionary psychologists study the evolved architecture of the human mind. They see it as composed of many different programs that process information, each with assumptions and procedures that were specialized by natural selection to solve a different adaptive problem faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors (e.g., choosing mates, hunting, avoiding predators, cooperating, using aggression).<ref>Barkow, J., Cosmides, L, & Tooby, J. (1992) The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. Oxford University Press.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref> These evolved programs contain content-rich assumptions about how the world and other people work. When ideas are passed from mind to mind, they are changed by these evolved inference systems (much like messages get changed in a game of telephone). But the changes are not usually random. Evolved programs add and subtract information, reshaping the ideas in ways that make them more "intuitive", more memorable, and more attention-grabbing. In other words, "memes" (ideas) are not precisely like genes. Genes are normally copied faithfully as they are replicated, but ideas normally are not. It's not just that ideas mutate every once in a while, like genes do. Ideas are transformed every time they are passed from mind to mind, because the sender's message is being interpreted by evolved inference systems in the receiver.<ref>Boyer, P. (2001) Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. Basic Books.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref><ref>Sperber, D. (1996). Explaining Culture: A Naturalistic Approach. Blackwell.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref> It is useful for some applications to note, however, that there are ways to pass ideas which are more resilient and involve substantially less mutation, such as by mass distribution of printed media.
There is no necessary contradiction between evolutionary psychology and DIT, but evolutionary psychologists argue that the psychology implicit in many DIT models is too simple; evolved programs have a rich inferential structure not captured by the idea of a "content bias". They also argue that some of the phenomena DIT models attribute to cultural evolution are cases of "evoked culture"—situations in which different evolved programs are activated in different places, in response to cues in the environment.<ref>Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L., (1992) Psychological foundations of culture. In The Adapted Mind.{{pn|date=July 2024}}</ref>
[[sociobiology|Sociobiologists]] try to understand how maximizing genetic fitness, in either the modern era or past environments, can explain human behavior. When faced with a trait that seems maladaptive, some sociobiologists try to determine how the trait actually increases genetic fitness (maybe through kin selection or by speculating about early evolutionary environments). Dual inheritance theorists, in contrast, will consider a variety of genetic and cultural processes in addition to natural selection on genes.
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