The Evolution of Culture with Joseph Henrich [S2 Ep.20]
Jun 26, 2021
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Listen to Joseph Henrich, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, discuss how cultural practices shape human biology, the dominance of humans over the animal kingdom, tribal traditions, lactose intolerance, WEIRD cultures, and the policy implications of cultural research.
Culture is the main reason why humans dominate over the animal kingdom.
Cultural learning involves selectivity and children imitate those who are successful and prestigious.
Psychological traits in weird populations are not universal and differ from non-weird populations.
Deep dives
The Power of Culture: Influence on Human Behavior and Biology
This podcast episode featuring Joseph Henrich, a professor of evolutionary biology at Harvard University, explores the influence of culture on human biology and behavior. The discussion highlights how cultural practices have shaped human biology and why culture is the main reason humans dominate over the animal kingdom. The episode delves into the implicit wisdom found in tribal cultural traditions, the interaction between culture and genetics in areas such as lactose intolerance, and the measurable psychological differences between groups with different cultural backgrounds. The concept of "weird" populations (Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic) is introduced, emphasizing their unique psychological traits compared to non-weird populations. Examples are provided to demonstrate how culture shapes human experiences, including the detoxification process of Manioc in South America and the consequences of not following cultural practices.
How Humans Acquire Culture: Selectivity in Cultural Learning
Joseph Henrich discusses how humans acquire culture and the selectivity involved in cultural learning. Children are found to be particularly selective, paying attention to successful and prestigious individuals who share similarities with them. The podcast highlights that cultural learning goes beyond just copying what is seen, as children discriminate who, when, and what to imitate. The influence of cultural cues and content domains, such as food or animal behavior, are explored. Additionally, the importance of reputation and intentionality in cultural learning is discussed, with examples of how children imitate and are influenced by others' behaviors and moral judgments.
Weird vs. Non-Weird Populations: Psychological Differences
The episode introduces the concept of "weird" populations and explores the psychological differences between weird (Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic) and non-weird populations. Weird populations are characterized as individualistic, overconfident, analytically oriented, and focused on individual accomplishments. The discussion emphasizes that these psychological traits are not universal and that non-weird populations exhibit different cultural norms and behaviors. Variations in norms related to guilt, shame, personal standards, and social expectations are highlighted, with examples of how different societies prioritize individual aspirations or communal values. The impact of cultural context on psychological tendencies is demonstrated through experiments exploring responses to completing the sentence "I am blank."
Gene culture co-evolution and its impact on human evolution
The concept of gene culture co-evolution suggests that cultural evolution shapes our genetic evolution. This can be seen in the example of cooking, where the use of fire for cooking led to changes in our digestive system and genetic makeup. Humans co-evolved with cooking as a species, relying on it to break down food. Another example is the expansion of our brains to acquire and store cultural information. Cumulative culture produced more complex tools and knowledge, leading to the need for larger brains to learn from others.
The role of social norms and cultural learning in human development
Social norms play a crucial role in shaping human behavior and psychology. Children learn social norms at a young age and preferentially interact with those who share their dialect or language. Cultural learning is influenced by ethnic markers and influences tribe-like divisions within societies. Cultural differences can persist across generations and create diverse sets of social norms, even in multicultural societies. The assimilation process and time spent within a culture can weaken cultural differences. These cultural differences are not solely genetic but can be changed through cultural adaptation and exposure to new norms.
Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman.
My guest today is Joseph Henrich, a Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Joseph is also the author of the books, "The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous", "The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter" and "Why Humans Cooperate: A Cultural and Evolutionary Explanation (Evolution and Cognition)"
We talk about the ways in which cultural practices have shaped human biology, why culture is the real reason why humans dominate over the animal kingdom, the implicit wisdom in many tribal cultural traditions, lactose intolerance, and other ways that culture has interacted with genetics, so-called WEIRD cultures (Western Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) and how they differ from more traditional cultures and much more.
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