How traditions live and die / Olivier Morin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morin, Olivier.

Series:

Foundations of human interaction.

Foundations of human interaction

Standardized Title:

Comment les traditions naissent et meurent. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tradition (Philosophy).

Knowledge, Sociology of.

Social change--Sociological aspects.

Social change.

Social values.

Socialization.

Culture diffusion.

Interpersonal communication and culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (319 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book brings together cognitive science and quantitative cultural history to look into the causes of cultural survival. Instead of blind and faithful imitation, it explores the appeal of traditions evolved to fit cognitive biases. This is both an introduction and an alternative to contemporary theories of cultural evolution.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Foreword

Series Editor Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction. The Flop Problem and the Wear-and-Tear Problem

1. The Transmission and Diffusion of Traditions

Culture as Distributed

Cultural Homogeneity Is Overrated . . .

. . . Yet Homogeneity Remains a Heavily Influential Hypothesis

A Quantitative and Abstract View of Culture

What Is Cultural Transmission?

Distinguishing Diffusion and Transmission

Transmission and Invention Are Not Opposites

Not All Differences between Societies Are Traditional

Our Cultural Repertoires Could Not Exist without Transmission

Culture: A Set of Traditions Rather than a Set of Differences

Do Traditions Exist?

Some Traditions Are as Durable as They Seem

Culture Is Not an Undecomposable Whole

Why Anthropologists Are No Longer Interested in Traditions

Traditions Do Not Exist Solely as Ideas

Two Questions

Why Are There Traditions Rather than Nothing?

Why Does One Species Monopolize Traditions?

2. Communication and Imitation

Imitating and Understanding Others

Looking for "True Imitation"

Imitation Is neither a Human Privilege nor the Source of Our Cultures

Human Ostensive Communication

Involuntary Transmission: When Behaviors Leak Information

Non-Ostensive Voluntary Transmission

Voluntary and Overt Transmission: a Human Phenomenon

Culture Did Not Build Our Communicative Skills from the Ground Up

Ostensive Communication Is Not Particularly Faithful

Communicating to Imitate, Imitating to Communicate

Communication for Imitation: Demonstrations and "Rational" Imitation

Ostensive Communication Goes Beyond Teaching

It Takes Place at Any Time, from Anyone, and for Any Reason

It Requires an Active Reconstruction of the Transmitted Material

It Can Bypass Language

It Does Not Need Adults.

"A Light, Insubstantial, Fugitive Web"

3. The Myth of Compulsive Imitation

How Far Do We Follow Conformity and Deference?

An Ambiguity of Dual Inheritance Theory

"Simple Heuristics that Make Us Smart"-Really?

Docility: Does Compulsive Imitation Breed Altruism?

The Case for Flexible Imitation

Imitation: the Key that Unlocks Every Door?

Conformity and Deference: Psychological Mechanisms or Social Facts?

Cultural Diffusion in a Population of Flexible Imitators

Negative Informational Cascades Are Short or Rare

Waves of Compulsive Imitation: Often Evoked, Seldom Documented

The Influence of Influentials: Tautology or Misunderstanding?

Closing the Case against the Imitation Hypothesis

4. A Theory of Diffusion Chains

Transmission Is Easy, Diffusion Is Hard

There Is No Inertia for Transmission

Why a Few Transmission Episodes Do Not Make a Diffusion Chain

Transmission Fidelity Is Not the Problem

For Transmission, Quantity Matters More than Quality

Cultural Transmission Is No Chinese Whispers Game

A Tradition Must Be Carried by Many Robust Diffusion Chains

Redundancy and Repetition Make Diffusion Chains Less Fragile

Traditions Must Proliferate in Order to Survive

Stability and Success Go Together

Why Do Traditions Proliferate?

Accessibility: Certain Populations Make Contacts Easier

Many Ways to Proliferate, Several Types of Diffusion Chains

Cultural Selection-Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen

Traditions Survive Cultural Selection by Being Attractive

Attraction Can Be Linked to a Restricted Context, or More General

Traditions Are Appealing in Many Ways, Not All of Them Cognitive

Transmission Is Not Memorization, Culture Is Not Collective Memory

When Does Psychology Drive Culture?

Politeness Norms Last Longer if They Tap into Our Sense of Disgust.

Among the Kwaio, Beliefs about Spirits Survived by Being Intuitive

Generally Attractive Traditions Do Not Always Prevail

How the Vagaries of Diffusion Dilute General Attraction

Local Attraction Can Override General Attraction, Locally

General Attraction Prevails in Long and Narrow Diffusion Chains

For Instance, Widely Diffused Languages Tend to Be Easier on the Mind

The Benefit of Moving across Scales When Looking at Culture

5. The Passing of Generations

"That Constant Stream of Recruits to Mankind"

Demographic Generations Are Not Social Generations

How to Link Humans Scattered across Time

How Generational Overlap Makes Diffusion Easier

Demographic and Social Obstacles to Transmission

Everything Your Parents Did Not Teach You about Culture

Why Do Children Have Traditions?

The Lost World of Children's Peer Culture

Children's Traditions Are Not Vestigial Adult Practices

They Are Mostly Transmitted from Child to Child

They Are Children's Games, and They Look Like It

They Are at Least as Durable as Cross-Generational Traditions

They Are Homogenic and Share a Common Fate

What Makes Children's Peer Culture Last?

Traditionalism Is Not What Took Children's Culture across Time

Neither Does Memorability Preserve Children's Rhymes

Children's Traditions Were Selected to Proliferate

Generational Turnover Need Not Impair Cultural Survival

6. An Ever More Cultural Animal

Three Clues for One Puzzle

What Is Cultural Accumulation?

"Cumulative Culture" Is an Avatar of Evolutionary Gradualism

Faithfully Replicated Small Changes Cannot Explain Everything

Traditions Often Endure without Improving . . .

. . . and Cultural Progress May Do without Conservation

The Growing Number of Traditions Is What Matters

The Opening Up of the Human Public Domain.

Human Populations Became Increasingly Hospitable to Culture . . .

. . . But Hospitable Populations Are No Guarantee of Cultural Progress

The Extreme Accumulation Hypothesis

What Kind of Cultural Animal Are We?

We Need Not Believe that We Are Wired for Culture . . .

. . . or that Communication Is Designed for Cultural Transmission

A Species Taken in a Cultural Avalanche

The Growing Weight of Traditions Does Not Erase Human Nature

A Cultural Animal by Accident

Appendix

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-049331-3

0-19-021051-6

OCLC:

936290332