Genes, Mind, and Culture

The following sections are included:

• Contents

• Preface to the New Edition of Genes, Mind and Culture

• Acknowledgements

• The Next Synthesis: 25 Years of Genes, Mind and Culture

• Departure Points

• Bibliography

• Preface to the First Edition

The subject of this book is what we have come to call gene-culture coevolution. At first glance such an expression might seem to imply a coupling of processes that is unlikely and perhaps impossible. But this is not the case. The linkage between biological and cultural evolution is a logical possibility, the exploration of which has become an increasingly clear major intellectual challenge. Many philosophers and scientists still consider the gap between the biological and social sciences to be a permanent discontinuity, grounded in epistemology and reinforced by a fundamental difference in goals on the part of specialists. We view it instead as a largely unknown evolutionary process — a complicated, fascinating interaction in which culture is generated and shaped by biological imperatives while biological traits are simultaneously altered by genetic evolution in response to cultural innovation…

The following sections are included:

• Taste and Smell

• Color Classification

• Hearing

• Summary

The following sections are included:

• Elements of Human Information Processing

• General Properties of Secondary Epigenetic Rules

• Facial Recognition

• Visual Pattern Complexity

• Nonverbal Communication

• Mother-Infant Bonding

• Fears and Phobias

• Incest Avoidance

• Epigenetic Rules of Valuation and Decision Making

• Other Epigenetic Rules

• The Reification Learning Rules

• Summary

• Appendix 3-1: The Measurement of Selectivity in Epigenetic Rules

The following sections are included:

• Socialization and the Propagation of Culturgens

• Individual Decision Making

• The Cognitive and Ethnographic Pictures

• The Translation Process

• The Structure of Ethnographic Curves

• Human Assimilation Functions

• Brother-Sister Incest Avoidance

• Fission in Yanomamö Villages

• Fashion in Women's Dress

• Can Culture Have a Life of Its Own?

• Summary

• Appendix 4-1: Cognitive Dynamics and Algorithmic Languages

• Appendix 4-2: Deriving the Motion Equation of Culturgens

• Appendix 4-3: An M-Culturgen Model

• Appendix 4-4: The Stationary Solution

The following sections are included:

• The Genetics of Populations

• The Existence of the Coevolutionary Landscape

• Heterogeneous Environments

• The Role of History

• The Role of Phenotypic Variation

• Summary

• Appendix 5-1: Environmental History and the Fate of Dominant/Recessive Alleles

• Appendix 5-2: Environmental History and the Fate of Alleles with Heterozygote Superiority

The following sections are included:

• Epigenesis

• The Ontogeny of Mind

• Cognition and Genetic Fitness

• Previous Studies on Coevolution

• Modeling the Coevolutionary Circuit

• The Model Life Cycle

• Multiple Culturgens and Innovation

• The Gene-Culture Translation

• The Reward Structure

• The Fertility Map

• The General Coevolutionary Equations

• Specification of the Parameters

• Conclusions from the Model

• The Significance of Coevolutionary Models

• Summary

The following sections are included:

• Cultures as the Biotas of Archipelagoes

• Culturgen Packing

• Why Is Euculture So Rare?

• Is Culture Necessary for Civilization?

• Summary

The following sections are included:

• Epigenesis

• Learning

• Complexity

• The Network of Causation

• Gene-Culture Theory and the Social Sciences

• The Explanation of History

The following sections are included:

• Glossary

• Bibliography

• Index