Cultural Evolution ─ Society, Technology, Language, and Religion

Over the past few decades, a growing body of research has emerged from a variety ofdisciplines to highlight the importance of cultural evolution in understanding human behavior. Widerapplication of these insights, however, has been hampered by traditional disciplinary boundaries. Toremedy this, in this volume leading researchers from theoretical biology, developmental andcognitive psychology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, andeconomics come together to explore the central role of cultural evolution in different aspects ofhuman endeavor.

The contributors take as their guiding principle the idea thatcultural evolution can provide an important integrating function across the various disciplines ofthe human sciences, as organic evolution does for biology. The benefits of adopting a culturalevolutionary perspective are demonstrated by contributions on social systems, technology, language,and religion. Topics covered include enforcement of norms in human groups, the neuroscience oftechnology, language diversity, and prosociality and religion. The contributors evaluate currentresearch on cultural evolution and consider its broader theoretical and practical implications,synthesizing past and ongoing work and sketching a roadmap for future cross-disciplinary efforts.

ContributorsQuentin D. Atkinson, Andrea Baronchelli, RobertBoyd, Briggs Buchanan, Joseph Bulbulia, Morten H. Christiansen, Emma Cohen, William Croft, MichaelCysouw, Dan Dediu, Nicholas Evans, Emma Flynn, Pieter Francois, Simon Garrod, Armin W. Geertz,Herbert Gintis, Russell D. Gray, Simon J. Greenhill, Daniel B. M. Haun, Joseph Henrich, Daniel J.Hruschka, Marco A. Janssen, Fiona M. Jordan, Anne Kandler, James A. Kitts, Kevin N. Laland, LaurentLehmann, Stephen C. Levinson, Elena Lieven, Sarah Mathew, Robert N. McCauley, Alex Mesoudi, AraNorenzayan, Harriet Over, Ju‥rgen Renn, Victoria Reyes-Garcia, Peter J. Richerson, Stephen Shennan,Edward G. Slingerland, Dietrich Stout, Claudio Tennie, Peter Turchin, Carel van Schaik, Matthijs VanVeelen, Harvey Whitehouse, Thomas Widlok, Polly Wiessner, David Sloan Wilson

Morton H. Christiansen is Professor of Psychology and Codirector of the Cognitive Science Lab at Cornell University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He has coedited L anguage Universals and other books.