Innovation in Cultural Systems: Contributions from Evolutionary Anthropology
Michael J. O'Brien and Stephen J. Shennan
Abstract
In recent years an interest in applying the principles of evolution to the study of culture emerged in the social sciences. Archaeologists and anthropologists reconsidered the role of innovation in particular, and have moved toward characterizing innovation in cultural systems not only as a product but also as an evolutionary process. This distinction was familiar to biology but new to the social sciences; cultural evolutionists from the nineteenth to the twentieth century had tended to see innovation as a preprogrammed change that occurred when a cultural group “needed” to overcome environmen ... More
In recent years an interest in applying the principles of evolution to the study of culture emerged in the social sciences. Archaeologists and anthropologists reconsidered the role of innovation in particular, and have moved toward characterizing innovation in cultural systems not only as a product but also as an evolutionary process. This distinction was familiar to biology but new to the social sciences; cultural evolutionists from the nineteenth to the twentieth century had tended to see innovation as a preprogrammed change that occurred when a cultural group “needed” to overcome environmental problems. This book, from the perspective of a variety of disciplines—including anthropology, archaeology, evolutionary biology, philosophy, and psychology—offers different perspectives on cultural innovation. The book provides not only a range of views but also an integrated account, with the chapters offering an orderly progression of thought. The chapters consider innovation in biological terms, discussing epistemology, animal studies, systematics and phylogeny, phenotypic plasticity and evolvability, and evo-devo; they discuss modern insights into innovation, including simulation, the random-copying model, diffusion, and demographic analysis; and offer case studies of innovation from archaeological and ethnographic records, examining developmental, behavioral, and social patterns.
Keywords:
principles of evolution,
study of culture,
cultural innovation,
cultural systems,
evolutionary process,
cultural evolutionists,
cultural group,
environmental problems,
epistemology,
animal studies
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2009 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780262013338 |
| Published to MIT Press Scholarship Online: August 2013 |
DOI:10.7551/mitpress/9780262013338.001.0001 |
