Explaining culture scientifically / edited by Melissa J. Brown.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Brown, Melissa J.

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Culture--Research.

Culture.

Ethnology--Case studies.

Ethnology.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

ix, 387 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2008]

Summary:

What exactly is culture? The authors of this volume suggest that the study of one of anthropology's central questions may be a route to developing a scientific paradigm for the field. The contributors-prominent scholars in anthropology, biology, and economics-approach culture from very different theoretical and methodological perspectives, through studies grounded in fieldwork, surveys, demography, and other empirical data. From humans to chimpanzees, from Taiwan to New Guinea, from cannibalism to marriage patterns, this volume directly addresses the challenges of explaining culture scientifically. The evolutionary paradigm lends itself particularly well to the question of culture; in these essays, different modes of inheritance-genetic, cultural, ecological, and structural-illustrate evolutionary patterns in a variety of settings.

Explaining Culture Scientifically is divided into parts that address how to think about culture, modeling approaches to cultural influences on behavior, ethnographic case studies addressing the question of culture's influence on behavior, and challenges to the possibility of a scientific approach to culture. It is necessary reading for scholars and students in anthropology and related disciplines.

Contents:

Introduction, Developing a scientific paradigm for understanding culture / Melissa J. Brown

Some kinds of causal powers that make up culture / Roy D'Andrade

Culture in evolution : toward an integration of chimpanzee and human cultures / Christophe Boesch

Dissent with modification : cultural evolution and social niche construction / Marcus W. Feldman

Cultural evolution : accomplishments and future prospects / Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd

Conditions for the spread of culturally transmitted costly punishment of sib mating / Kenichi Aoki, Yasuo Ihara, and Marcus W. Feldman

Sexually transmitted infections as biomarkers of cultural behavior / James Holland Jones

When culture affects behavior : a new look at kuru / William H. Durham

When culture does not affect behavior : the structural basis of ethnic identity / Melissa J. Brown

Cultural species / Joseph Henrich

Culture matters : inferences from comparative behavioral experiments and evolutionary models / Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis

Cultural evolution and uxorilocal marriage in China : a second opinion / Arthur P. Wolf

When theory is data : coming to terms with "culture" as a way of life / Gregory Starrett

Studying "culture" scientifically as an oxymoron : the interesting question is why people don't accept this / Robert Borofsky

Epilogue, Future considerations / Melissa J. Brown.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-357) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780295987897

0295987898

OCLC:

183264991