Diversity: Cultural and biological

Early human populations utilized a wide range of biological resources in a tremendous diversity of environments. As a result, they possessed high levels of cultural diversity dependent on and supportive of high levels of biological diversity. This pattern changed drastically with technological innovations enabling certain human groups to break down territorial barriers and to usurp resources of other groups. The dominant groups have gone on to exhaust a whole range of resources, depleting both biological and cultural diversity. Traditions of resource conservation can, however, re-emerge when the dominant cultures spread over the entire area and the innovations diffuse to other human groups. This could change once again as genetically engineered organisms become an economically viable proposition with the accruing advantages concentrated in the hands of a few human groups: a further drastic reduction in biological and cultural diversity may ensue.     

Pathways to Cultural Awareness: Cultural Therapy with Teachers and Students

Pathways to Cultural Awareness: Cultural Therapy with Teachers and Students. George Spindler and Louise Spindler eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc. 1994. 337 pp.     

Cultural Economies: Past and Present

Cultural Economies: Past and Present. Rhoda H. Halperin. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994. 309 pp.     

Cultural Sharing and Cultural Theory: Some Findings of a Five-Society Study

The results of this study of the sharing of elements of culture concerned with family life among nuclear family members indicate that members of family statuses share no more with one another than they do with members of their society in general. The highest levels of sharing are found not within statuses but within families. In some family relationships it was found that high levels of sharing develop over time rather than being brought to the relationships from their outset, but this does not seem to be true of all family relationships. Differences in levels of sharing between families in the same society were found to be greater than differences between different societies. The status-centered model of cultural sharing as currently formulated appears a weak basis for a broader cultural theory because of its failure to account for important elements in cultural distribution not attributable to status membership alone , [cultural differences, culture, family, status, theory]     

Indices of Sociocultural Development and Cultural Accumulation: An Exponential Cultural Growth Law and a "Cultural Surgency" Factor

Cameiro's Index of Cultural Accumulation related exponentially to the author's Index of Sociocultural Development. The relationship follows mathematically, as an "exponential cultural growth law," from the assumption that cultural traits diversify at a constant proportional rate with successive increments of sociocultural development, though the rate may vary from one society to another. This variation is hypothetically dependent upon a factor of Cultural Surgency, such that relative over-elaboration of a culture is associated with freedom of emotional cathexis permitted by its norms. Statistical tests on a number of cultural traits supported the hypothesis.     

Cultural Identity and Illness: Fulani Views

Cultural identity – who the Fulani think they are – informs thinking onillnesses they suffer. Conversely, illness, so very prevalent insub-Saharan Africa, provides Fulani with a constant reminder of theirdistinctive condition in Guinea. How they approach being ill also tellsFulani about themselves. The manner in which Fulani think they are sickexpresses their sense of difference from other ethnic groups. Schemas ofillness and of collective identity draw deeply from the same well andweb of thoughts. Three different approaches of schema theory are used totrace what ties illness to identity. These are 1) the schema asprototype; 2) a connectionist approach associates schemas for illnesswith other cultural schemas; and 3) a hierarchy of schemas. Thehierarchy includes master schemas for ethnic identity, schemas forillness generally and sub-schemas for separate ailments. Schemas orientand provide a framework for the practice of being Fulani – in the sensethat Bourdieu would describe practice as the application of practicalknowledge. Illnesses above the waist are said to be part of the Fulanicondition of belonging in arid climates while they need suffer thehumidity of Guinea. Illnesses below the waist are thought to arise whenone does not act like a Fulani, especially in matters of food and sex.As individuals disclose or conceal illness, as they discuss illness andthe problem of others they reflect standards of Fulani life – beingstrong of character not necessarily of body, being disciplined,rigorously Moslem, and leaders among lessors. To disregard standards orto suggest one does not care about such standards is shameful and placesone out of phase with others and with cultural norms. But to be in stepwith others and with cultural norms is to have pride in the self and thefoundations of Fulani life.     

Cultural Evolution: Contemporary Viewpoints

Cultural Evolution: Contemporary Viewpoints. Gary M. Feinman and Linda Manzanilla, eds. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2000. 267 pp.     

Success-biased social learning: Cultural and evolutionary dynamics

Success bias is a social learning strategy whereby learners tend to acquire the cultural variants of successful individuals. I develop a general model of success-biased social learning for discrete cultural traits with stochastic payoffs, and investigate its dynamics when only two variants are present. I find that success bias inherently favors rare variants, and consequently performs worse than unbiased imitation (i.e. random copying) when success payoffs are at least mildly stochastic and the optimal variant is common. Because of this weakness, success bias fails to replace unbiased imitation in an evolutionary model when selection is fairly weak or when the environment is relatively stable, and sometimes fails to invade at all. I briefly discuss the optimal strength of success bias, the complicated nature of defining success in social learning contexts, and the value of variant frequency as an important source of information to social learners. I conclude with predictions regarding the prevalence of success bias in different behavioral domains.     

On Cultural and Reproductive Success: Kipsigis Evidence

Studies testing the evolutionary biological prediction that striving for cultural goals is a proximate means of attaining high reproductive success are reviewed, and some of their problems are examined. Recent data from the Kipsigis of Kenya provide robust demonstration that wealth enhances a man's reproductive success. The evolutionary significance of correlations between cultural and reproductive success, and the additional problem of interpreting studies conducted in the rapidly changing environments of modern man, are discussed.     

Uncommon Ground: Cultural Landscapes and Environmental Values

Uncommon Ground: Cultural Landscapes and Environmental Values. Veronica Strang. New York: New York University Press, 1997.310 pp.