#139 Peter Richerson: Biology and Culture, Cultural Evolution, Cognition, and Group Selection

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT SORRY ABOUT THE AUDIO AND VIDEO ISSUES, THE INTERNET CONNECTION WAS WEAK. HOPE YOU ENJOY IT. Dr. Peter Richerson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis. He’s a biologist with interest in cultural evolution, animal social learning and mathematical models. He’s also the author of books like Culture and the Evolutionary Process, Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, and The Origin and Evolution of Cultures, all written in collaboration with Dr. Robert Boyd. In this episode, we talk about culture, cultural evolution, and gene-culture coevolution. We start off with a definition of culture and the relationship between biology and culture. Then, we talk about culture as a phenotype, how culture evolved, and the cognitive bases of it. We go through some of the main scientific approaches to culture and their drawbacks, including Leda Cosmides and John Tooby’s evoked culture, the sociobiologists and inclusive fitness, and Richard Dawkins’ memetics. We also refer to gene-culture coevolution, and how group selection work are the cultural and genetic levels. Time Links: 00:53 The relationship between Biology and Culture 02:57 What is culture?              04:41 Are there units of selection in culture, like ideas, beliefs, and norms?         07:32 Is there culture in other species?     08:56 Is culture part of the phenotype? And unique aspects of human culture  10:50 The cognitive bases of culture    15:45 How learning and culture evolved     19:28 Why is culture so rare in other animals?  22:58  Culture as environment 27:13 Cosmides and Tooby approach to culture (evoked culture) 30:49 When culture is maladaptive 33:09 About memetics, and the “meme” concept 36:31 Cultural group selection 42:48 Does group selection also occur at the genetic level? 48:14 Are there any purely biological or purely cultural aspects of human nature? 51:47 Follow Dr. Richerson’s work! -- Follow Dr. Richerson’s work: Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/ya8h54z3 Articles on Researchgate: https://tinyurl.com/y7zgx29d Books: https://tinyurl.com/y8236hn6 -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA AND ADRIANO ANDRADE! I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018: https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo And check out my playlists on: PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g