CPS reading group 18/02

[Thomas Graham]

Hi all,

This week, the CPS reading group will be reading "The ecological
approach to culture" by Baumard and Andre. You can find the paper
attached to this email.

For the first few weeks before semester, the group will meet at
10:30-11:30am on Wednesday, in room 6.71. You can find the abstract
below, and the zoom link below that.

Cheers,

Tom

Abstract:
The prevailing view in the literature treats cultural dynamics as
fundamentally distinct from other ecological processes—governed by a
second system of inheritance and requiring a separate set of
theoretical foundations. Yet at its core, culture is simply an
emergent outcome of interactions among individuals and with their
shared environment—the very kind of phenomenon ecologists routinely
study. In fact, in many ecosystems not considered cultural, such
interactions do produce stable population differences, rapid
innovations, informational changes, or even cumulative dynamics. These
phenomena are more pronounced in cultural ecosystems, but they are not
different in kind. Accordingly, we argue that cultural ecosystems
should be studied through the same mechanisms as other
ecosystems—ecological modifications, phenotypic responses, legacy
effects, and ecological cascades. Different ecosystems may require
specific methods or concepts, but not fundamentally different
theoretical frameworks. The main strength of this deflationary view of
culture lies in its parsimony. If culture is not fundamentally
special, we can rely on the same robust and well-tested
framework—namely, inclusive fitness theory—to understand human
behavior in cultural ecosystems, just as we do for animal behavior
more generally. Inclusive fitness theory, in turn, can help explain
both (i) individual behavior in culturally rich ecosystems and (ii)
how the interaction of such behaviors gives rise to the large-scale
ecological patterns we call culture.

Zoom link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://anu.zoom.us/j/84613271309?pwd=368zBkkuTfPFWqTNxLoTxOOV8QM9JW.1

[Thomas Graham]

Hi all,

Just a reminder that CPS will meet tomorrow at 10:30 to 11:30, in room
6.71 (the smaller of the two meeting rooms).

Cheers,

Tom