The Place of Culture in Nature Laura Desirée Di Paolo

Dpt. Philosophy, Sapienza University of Rome

lauradesiree.dipaolo@gmail.com

Resume

§  What we look for

§  Traditions

§  Identity, Information and Ratchet-product

§  Operative criteria

§  My own definition (updating McGrew)

From: Haslam et al. 2009

Features of the Definition

§  Interspecific;

§  Considers only observable and analysable characteristics;

§  Refers to the degree of reliable transmission within the group or population;

§  Takes into accounts the social aspects and benefits of this transmission;

§  Part of a more comprehensive theory about the evolution of humanlike culture (cumulative, historical or ratchet-product).

Defining culture - Not only humans

Tradition is:

A distinctive behaviour pattern shared by two or more individuals in a social unit, which persists over time and that new practitioners acquire in part through socially

aided learning (Fragaszy & Perry, 2003).

§  According to Whiten et al. (2011) this definition, too generic, needs to make explicit that:

1.  The behavioural pattern involves Social Learning;

2.  The behavioural pattern is shared by population’s members for long time;

3.  The “final” social unit is the population (culture is a population-level phenomenon).

§  McGrew (2004) argues for traditions without culture (trial-and-error) and cultures without traditions (horizontal transmission).

Defining culture - The way we do things

§  Do things - action (overt acts);

§  The way - standardised;

§  We - collective;

§  The way we do things - identity (McGrew, 2004)

Defining culture - Cultural Information

Culture is information transmitted between individuals or groups, where this information flows through and

brings about the reproduction of, and a lasting change in, the behavioural trait (Ramsey, 2013).

§  Information: what is it? where is it? (for critics: e.g. Lewens, 2014)

§  Transmission: how does it happens? (social/individual learning)

§  Individuals and groups: it is not specific enough (across generations; population-level);

§  Changing in the behavioural traits: actions? Species repertoires?(Observation and experience)

Postulate of Testability

No matter how culture is defined for comparative application, it must be operational. That is, ideas

and essences are fine in principle, a useful definition must be capable of empirical testing

(McGrew, 2004).

Copyright: Catherine Hobaiter http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/society/exhibitions/gb-bioscience-festival/animal-cultures-natures-second-inheritance-system.aspx

Operational criteria – The Ratchet Argument

According to advocated of cumulative or ratchet-product of culture, a species is cultural only if:

1.  The focused behaviour is performed by all the members of the group (distribution);

2.  The reproduction of the behavioural pattern or procedure is perfectly identical to that of the demonstrator (imitation);

3.  There i s accumulat ion of modi f icat ions (accumulation).

(Tomasello et al, 1993a).

Operational criteria – Boesh’s approaches Boesch (1997) considers three relevant approaches for culture:

§  Ecological (Population-level behaviour, not genetic nor ecological influences);

§  Transmission mechanism* (Fidelity in transmission of the behavioural

pattern);

§  Innovation (Influences come only from the group).

*On this point he specifies that:

”Regardless of the learning mechanism, it is fidelity in transmission that is important”

Operational criteria - McGrew criteria To be defined cultural, a set of traditions must achieve the following eight criteria (McGrew, 1992*):

§  Innovation (New pattern invented or modified);

§  Dissemination (Pattern acquired by another from the innovator);

§  Durability (Pattern performed outwith presence of demonstrator);

§  Standardization (Form of pattern consistent and stylised);

§  Diffusion (Pattern spreads from one group to another);

§  Tradition (Pattern persists from innovator’s generation to next one);

§  Non-subsistence (Pattern transcends subsistence);

§  Naturalness (Pattern shown in absence of direct human influence). *modified from Krober, 1928

Operational criteria - Elements

1.  A behavioural pattern (Competence, Knowledge, Custom);

2.  Reliably transmitted (Channel-independent);

3.  From group- to population-level;

4.  Socially diffused (Inter- / intra- generations);

5.  Not dependent anymore on the presence of the first innovator (Conspecific or human);

6.  Not immediately explicable by organisms’ physical features.

Defining culture - Culture As

A set of knowledge and competences [or know-how and know-what patterns], socially diffused

within a group or a population of organisms, reliably transmitted and acquired inter-

generationally by means of different learning channels —ecological, individual and social —,

displayed by a subject only after a previous experience of them, and potentially exportable and modifiable by a singular individual, altering

behaviours of another individual, group or population*.

[*Additionally, not anymore related with individuals’ subsistence]

Checking operative criteria

This definition takes into account:

ü  Only observable behaviours (Know-how and Know-what patterns);

ü  The mechanism by means of which they spread within the population;

ü  The degree of fidelity between original and reproduced patterns;

ü  Possible outcomes due to the adoption/exportation of these behavioural patterns (reproduction, “life style”, rank, etc…)

Finally, it allows inferences on the evolutionary trajectories of the standardized behavioural patterns, comparing more species.

References §  Boesch, C. (1997) Three approaches for assessing chimpanzee culture. In: Russon, A.E., Bard K.A., Parker, S.T. (Eds). Reaching into Thought;

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 404-429.

§  Fragaszy, D.M, Perry S. (2003) The Biology of Traditions: Models and Evidence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

§  Koops, K., Visalberghi, E., van Schaik, C.P. (2014) The Ecology of Primate Material Culture. Biology Letters 10, 20140508.

§  Laland, K.N. & Galef, B.G. (2009) The question of animal culture; Cambridge, Massachusetts - London, England: The MIT Press.

§  Lewens, T. (2014) Cultural Information: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. In: Gavallotti, M.C., Dieks, D., Gonzales, W., Hartmann, S., Uebel, T., Weber, M.

(Eds), New Directions in the Philosophy of Science. The Philosophy of Science Perspective, vol. 5, pp. 369-384.

§  Lunz, L.V. & Boesch, C. (2014) Traditions Over Trend: Neighboring Chimpanzee Communities Maintain Differences in Cultural Behavior

Despite Frequent Immigration of Adult Females. American Journal of Primatology 76, 6: 49-657.

§  McGrew, W.C. (1992) Chimpanzee Material Culture: Implications for Human Evolution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

§  McGrew, W.C. (2004) The Cultured Chimpanzee. Reflections on Cultural Primatology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

§  Ramsey, G. (2013) Culture in Humans and Other Animals. Biology and Philosophy 28, 457- 479.

§  Tomasello, M. (1999) The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press.

§  Tomasello, M. (2011) Human Culture in Evolutionary Perspective. In Gelfand, M.J., Chiu, C.Y., Hong, Y.Y. (Eds.). Advanced in Culture and

Psychology; New York, US: Oxford University Press, vol. 1, pp. 5-52.

§  Tomasello, M., Kruger, A.C., Ratner, H.H. (1993) Cultural Learning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16: 495-552.

§  Whiten, A. & van Schik, C.P. (2007) The Evolution of Animal ‘Cultures’ and Social Intelligence. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal

Society B. 362, 1480: 603-620.

§  Whiten, A. Hinde, R.A., Laland, K.N., Stringer, C.B. (2011) Culture Evolves. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366: 938-948.

§  van de Wall, E., Borgeaud, C., Whiten, A.(2013) Potent Social Learning and Conformity Shape a Wild Primate’s Foraging Decisions. Science

340, 6131: 483-485.

§  Yamamoto, S., Humle, T., Tanaka, M. (2013) Basis for Cumulative Cultural Evolution in Chimpazees: Social Learning of a More Efficient Tool-

Use Technique. PLOS one 8 (1): e55768.