Chpt 2: Culture and Human Nature
Is Culture Unique to Humans?
Why are Humans Adept at Cultural Learning?
Humans are unique in whom they choose to imitate
Cultural learning in animal kingdom
Chimpanzees in Senegal use tools to extract termites from mounds
Bottlenose dolphines use marine sponges as foraging tools
Imo (macaque) washing sweet potatoes
Prestige Bias
imitate what individuals, who have prestige, are doing
4 yr old children more likely to imitate bhvr of presigious model
effective way of cultural learning
side effect
fascinated to the point where we become interested in irrelevant info of prestigious individuals as well
Theory of Mind
Language
Cumulative cultural evolution
Ratchet Effect
Imitative learning (2 yr old children)
Emulative learning (chimpanzees)
learner internalizes smth of the model's goals & bhvr strategies
focusing on events that happen around the model, rather than what the model intends to accomplish
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cultural info thus grows in complexity and in utility over time
after an initial idea is learned from others, it can then be modified & improved upon by other individuals