Cultural Darwinism and Language

This article examines the effect of cultural selection on the development of language in humans. First, it is claimed that directive and expressive types of speech acts are commonly found in many animal species. Representative speech acts, on the other hand, with the exception of animal "calls," are found primarily among humans. !t is argued that a cultural environment is a probable selective factor for the capacity to produce representative speech acts. Second, it is argued that representative speech acts, once they became part of language, acted as a selective factor for increased intelligence and associated greater brain size. And, finally, it is argued that the capacity to create representative speech acts selected for brains that could store great numbers of memory episodes and narratives, as well as plan for the future. [Key words: evolution, language, cultural selection, brain, intelligence, memory]     

Cultural diversity and schooling

Ashley H. Robins, BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN PIGMENTATION, (Cambridge Studies in Biological Anthropology, 7), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, xiii + 253 pp., £37.50.

Ulfried Geuter, THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF PSYCHOLOGY IN NAZI GERMANY. Cambridge Studies in the History of Psychology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, v‐xxi + 335 pp., npl.

Clare Midgley, WOMEN AGAINST SLAVERY. THE BRITISH CAMPAIGNS, 1780–1870, London: Routledge, 1992, xii + 281 pp., £37.50.

Maryinez Lyons, THE COLONIAL DISEASE: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF SLEEPING SICKNESS IN NORTHERN ZAIRE, 1900–1940, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, xvi + 335 pp., £50.00.

Wim van Binsbergen, TEARS OF RAIN: ETHNICITY AND HISTORY IN CENTRAL WESTERN ZAMBIA, London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1992, 495 pp., £45.00.

Albert B. Robillard (ed.) SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS, London: Kegan Paul International, 1992, xvi + 507 pp., £45.

Sarah Radcliffe and Sallie Westwood (eds) ‘VIVA’: WOMEN AND POPULAR PROTEST IN LATIN AMERICA, London: Routledge, 1993, 270 pp., £12.99 pb; £40.00 hb.

Cindi Katz and Janice Monk (eds) FULL CIRCLES: GEOGRAPHIES OF WOMEN OVER THE LIFECOURSE, London: Routledge, 1993, 317 pp., £12.99 pb; £40 hb.

Hans van Amersfoort and Hans Knippenberg (eds), STATES AND NATIONS. THE REBIRTH OF THE ‘NATIONALITIES QUESTION’ IN EUROPE, Netherlands Geographical Studies 137, Amsterdam: Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, 1991, 189 pp., Dfl. 29.50.

Elizabeth D. Huttman, Wim Blauw and Juliet Saltman (eds), URBAN HOUSING SEGREGATION OF MINORITIES IN WESTERN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991, xiii + 431 pp., npl.

Roger Daniels, Sandra C. Taylor, and Harry H. L. Kitano (eds) JAPANESE AMERICANS: FROM RELOCATION TO REDRESS, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1992, 264 pp., $17.95 US (paper only).

David J. O'Brien and Stephen S. Fugita, THE JAPANESE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1991, 178 pp., £8.99 (paper).

Paul James Rutledge, THE VIETNAMESE EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992, 173 pp., npl.     

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.     

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.     

The Cultural Problem of the Cultural Anthropologist

An intensive analysis of Malinowski's diary reveals an ethnocentrism hitherto unnoticed in our discipline. Ethnocentrism is common to all societies and cultures, but what anthropologists have so far failed to understand is the very basic distinction between positive ethnocentrism and neutral ethnocentrism. Malinowski, being rooted in white European society and culture where positive enthocentrism prevails, suffered from some peculiar defects in perception of non- Western behavior that vitiated some of his theories, such as those on religion and culture change. This paper shows that some of his shortcomings are still with us today and indicates what we can do to remedy them. [religion, ethnocentrism, positive or neutral, Trobriand Islanders, mental hospitals, internal versus external impetuses to culture change, Christianity, Islam, proselytization, Primeval Flood myth, comparative studies, China, Europe, national character, methodology]     

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]     

Cultural Persistence and Cultural Change As Reflected in Oklahoma Seneca-Cayuga Ceremonialism1

Abstract

The Seneca-Cayuga group of Oklahoma are descendants of a band which detached itself from the Iroquois proper in 1750 and was joined by elements of the 6 Iroquois nations in 1800. Later, the combined group exchanged Ohio land for holdings in Oklahoma.

The focus of modern tribal life is the annual Greencorn Festival consisting of 4 major rites: the Personal Chant, the Turtle Shell Dance, the Thanksgiving Dance and the Peach Seed Game. Various women’s dances, social and exotic dances of non-Iroquian origin are also staged.

It is concluded that major ceremonial elements are shared with the Iroquois proper. Borrowed elements are several versions of Plains dances and others derived from Shawnee and Delaware neighbors in Ohio and Oklahoma. Additionally Pan-Indian dances may be substitutes for vanishing tribal lore. There is a rejection of non-Iroquian ceremonial custom by the Seneca-Cayuga group similar to that found among another Iroquian group, the Wisconsin Oneida. The author attributes this to the toughness of Iroquois culture.     

Ethical Crises and Cultural Differences

Generalizations about patients without careful attention to their cultural background, their values and norms could lead to a number of ethical crises. The informed consent, disclosure of diagnosis and prognosis, and discussions of termination of treatment are reflections of Western cultural values. They represent respect for autonomy of clients and respect for openness in communications. For patients from other cultures such practices have different meanings that may violate their own values. The result of such conflict in practices and meanings can render the relationship between patients and health care personnel difficult at best and distrustful at worst.     

Cultural Politics and China's Minorities

China's Minority Cultures. Colin Mackerras. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. 252 pp.
Cultural Encounters on China's Ethnic Frontiers. Stevan Harrell. ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995. 379 pp.     

Cultural Memory and Biodiversity.

Cultural Memory and Biodiversity. Virginia D. Nazarea. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998. 189 pp.     

Cultural transmission and biological markets

Active cultural transmission of fitness-enhancing behavior (sometimes called “teaching”) can be seen as a costly strategy: one for which its evolutionary stability poses a Darwinian puzzle. In this article, we offer a biological market model of cultural transmission that substitutes or complements existing kin selection-based proposals for the evolution of cultural capacities. We demonstrate how a biological market can account for the evolution of teaching when individual learners are the exclusive focus of social learning (such as in a fast-changing environment). We also show how this biological market can affect the dynamics of cumulative culture. The model works best when it is difficult to have access to the observation of the behavior without the help of the actor. However, in contrast to previous non-mathematical hypotheses for the evolution of teaching, we show how teaching evolves, even when innovations are insufficiently opaque and therefore vulnerable to acquisition by emulators via inadvertent transmission. Furthermore, teaching in a biological market is an important precondition for enhancing individual learning abilities.     

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.     

Cultural evolution and prehistoric demography

One prominent feature of human culture is that different populations have different tools, technologies and cultural artefacts, and these unique toolkits can also differ in size and complexity. Over the past few decades, researchers in the fields of prehistoric demography and cultural evolution have addressed a number of questions regarding variation in toolkit size and complexity across prehistoric and modern populations. Several factors have been proposed as possible explanations for this variation: in particular, the mobility of a population, the resources it uses, the volatility of its environment and the number of individuals in the population. Using a variety of methods, including empirical and ethnographic research, computational models and laboratory-based experiments, researchers have found disparate results regarding each hypothesis. These discordant findings have led to debate over the factors that most significantly influence toolkit size and composition. For instance, several computational, empirical and laboratory studies of food-producing populations have found a positive correlation between the number of individuals in a population and toolkit size, whereas similar studies of hunter–gatherer populations have found little evidence of such a link. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive review of the literature in this field of study and propose corollaries and interdisciplinary approaches with the goal of reconciling dissimilar findings into a more comprehensive view of cultural toolkit variation.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography’.     

Plains History and Cultural Anthropology

Abstract

Recent cutbacks in research funding and the burgeoning population of anthropology graduate departments may soon force cultural anthropologists to recognize what their archaeological colleagues have long known: their own “backyard” is a field for fertile research. Specifically, cultural anthropologists may turn increasingly to using long-neglected data sources - rich in documentation - on Anglo-Saxon America. This paper briefly investigates some reasons for the study of American historical data and presents a preliminary analysis of some data.