CASE STUDY: CULTUREFebruary 27, 2014Hugo Harmens, Jason Leung

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OVERVIEW: CHAPTERS 8–11 Culture in Songbirds and its Contribution to

the Evolution of New Species Darren E. Irwin

When does Psychology Drive Culture? Olivier Morin

Quantifying the Importance of Motifs on Attic Figure-Painted Pottery Peter Schauer

Agents, Intelligence, and Social Atoms Alex Bentley, Paul Ormerod

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WHAT IS CULTURE? “The sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human

beings and transmitted from one generation to another.” – Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, second edition. 1999. Random House: New York.

“The total set of beliefs, values, customs, and behavior patterns that characterizes a human population; the non-instinctive manner in which humans interact with or manipulate their environment.” – Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology. 1992. Academic Press: San Diego, California.

“The customs, civilization, and achievements of a particular time or people.” – The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, American Edition. 1996. Oxford University Press: New York.

“The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.” – www.thefreedictionary.com

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WHAT IS CULTURE? Phenomenon originally conceived by humans

to be unique to humans A desire to keep humans separate from other

species? Problematic:

Evidence of culture-like behaviour in animals Being species-specific can prevent us from

making progress in understanding the origins and evolution of culture

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WHAT IS CULTURE? What if we take out the words human or

people?cd

CULTURE:

Socially learned behaviour that can grow and change through time

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(Irwin 2013)

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GENES AND MEMES Question of Nature vs. Nurture Look to the natural world for clues

Example: Birdsong Study of greenish warbler species Variation influenced by genes and learning

Observations: Songs vary geographically Gradual differences in structure, syntax Female preference for complex songs

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GENES AND MEMES Result: two non-interbreeding species in Siberia

Different song structures, syntax Genetic pre-disposition to sing their species’ song

structure Able to learn the other species’ song syntax

(Irwin 2013)

WESTERN BRANCH: longer song units, but greater repetition

EASTERN BRANCH: shorter song units, but greater repertoire

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GENE-CULTURE CO-EVOLUTION Sexual selection drives genes and memes to

evolve Change in memes cause selection on genes Change in genes cause selection on memes

(Irwin 2013)

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GENE-CULTURE CO-EVOLUTION Culture is not simply that which is not

genetic One system of GENE-CULTURE CO-

EVOLUTION

By studying such behaviour in animals, we can gain new insights to understanding of our own cultural phenomena

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UNIVERSAL PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS Parallels in human cultures? Are there human species-wide cultural traits? Is culture the result of:

Individuals? Society?

[General psychological constraints] seem to influence culture in a way that is both uniform and weak. When one is in the business of explaining contrasts between individuals or societies, this makes them twice irrelevant.

—Morin 2013

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UNIVERSAL PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS Cultural Epidemiology:

Why? Allows for the study of transmission of

culture CULTURAL TRANSMISSION CHAINS

Culture… is a distribution of representations within a population. Being a statistical abstraction, this distribution lacks essence and causal powers. — Morin 2013 (emphasis added)

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CULTURAL TRANSMISSION CHAINS Long vs. Short: number of individuals

involved Broad vs. Narrow: impact each individual has Through time or space

Universal traits: cultural objects that persist in long and narrow chains

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CULTURAL TRANSMISSION CHAINS Problem of scale

Local impacts are also important to culture Cannot be ignored

Not all cultural things come from long/narrow chains Culture is not a mere reflection of the human mind

“Windows to the Human Mind”: Consistent and reliable indicators Underlying mental mechanisms

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CULTURE AS A COLLECTIVE WHOLE So many people So many times and places When an idea travels through thousands of

heads Millions of psychological filters Idiosyncrasies pull in all directions

Central Limit Theorem Large sample size averaging effect

Any remaining trend must be universal human trait

Suggests statistical approach

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CULTURE AS A COLLECTIVE WHOLE Immediate level:

Numerical analysis can reveal hidden trends i.e., Trends not obvious in traditional approaches

to cultural study

Greek pottery and Quantification Peter Schauer (2013)

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GREEK POTTERY AND QUANTIFICATION Through quantification:

Assess existing scholarly claims about motif importance

Make new observations of existing data

Source material: Beazley archive 75,451 pieces between 650–300 BC Identified and catalogued manually by experts

Preparing Beazley database for analysis

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QUANTIFYING ART BOREAS motif clearly gains biggest share in

the period 500–450 BC, when motifs already appearing in previous time-steps are omitted

Not possible to support conclusion without prior knowledge

PAN: increase in frequency supports Webster's correlation, but greatest frequency in PAN depictions occurred later

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QUANTIFYING ART NIKE's peak 475–425 BC previously unnoted

Warrants further investigation

(Schauer 2013)

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BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS Cultural importance cannot be inferred from

frequency alone Quantitative research can, in spite of this,

show other tendencies Starting points for further research

Perceived importance of works of art and individual artists Frequency revealing hidden cultural trends

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LARGE-SCALE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR What if we pretend culture is just an

emergent structure resulting from large-number statistics?

Complex phenomena from simple rules Chess Fractals Differential equations DNA and amino acids

Absence of (full) rationality(image from Planet3.org)

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LARGE-SCALE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR Humans as Zero-Intelligence Particles

We are not as smart as we think we are Also not independent/isolated Cannot make optimum or rational decisions

We do not have access to all information Resources available Dimensions of human problems so large As if we had approximately zero intelligence

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LARGE-SCALE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR Humans as Zero-Intelligence Particles

Assume as little as possible To identify the most general characteristics of

collective human behaviour

Particles cannot: Act with purpose or intent Learn Adapt based on previous outcomes

(image from http://www.webgl.com/2012/02/webgl-demo-particles-morph/)

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LARGE-SCALE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR Adding intelligence

Non-random interactions Networks

Adding copying Trends and fashions Peer pressure

Adding innovation

(image from http://www.webgl.com/2012/02/webgl-demo-particles-morph/)

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LARGE-SCALE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR Human decisions are social

Despite grandiose claims of re-inventing social science (Barabási 2005), these models in physics often fail to capture essential elements of human behaviour.

—Bentley and Ormerod 2013

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THESIS 1: “BORROWING” By “borrowing” methods from different

disciplines, we can build better models

Statistical methods are the best models we have for studying large-scale phenomena Sophisticated means of dealing with complexity and

heterogeneity No need to resort to simplified assumptions of

equilibrium or optimality View of large-scale emergent effects (social physics)

through individual-scale behaviour (anthropology) Insights into “tipping points” resulting from

nondescript individual interactions

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THESIS 1: “BORROWING” By “borrowing” methods from different

disciplines, we can build better models

Models are improved by using more data points Everyday and unexceptional works are more

numerous and, hence, more representative

Study of culture as a collective WHOLE rather than an isolated individual Influences on/of artists can be clearer

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THESIS 2: “MIXING” By “mixing” knowledge from different

disciplines, all will benefit

Disciplines will often encounter topics outside their traditionally-defined limits

Collaboration will broaden applicability across multiple diverse disciplines

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THESIS 2: “MIXING” By “mixing” knowledge from different

disciplines, all will benefit

Offer new non-biased perspectives Example: Physics and Anthropology Physics:

Can characterize a certain category of collective behaviour

But flawed assumptions about human behaviour Anthropology:

Has a deep record of individual behaviour and its infinite variability

But may not see collective effects

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TOWARDS CONSILIENCE

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PURITY

xkcd by Randall Munroe, http://xkcd.com/435/

On the other hand, physicists like to say physics is to math as sex is to masturbation.

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THE “SPECIAL” HUMANS Science is breaking down ways in which we

had previously thought we were “special”

Are we afraid our discipline(s) may also not be “special”?

PURITY vs. conceptual blending (consilience) as inherently human

PURITY vs. POLLUTION

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THE “SPECIAL” HUMANS AND PURITY “Core disgust”

Humanities towards Sciences? Sciences towards Humanities?

Objectivist approach without losing our achievements Do the humanists see the scientists’ striving for

“God’s eye view” inherently distorting and wrong?

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TOWARDS CONSILIENCE Is consilience a question of philosophy?

Do philosophical questions matter? “What is Truth?” Objectivism, post-modernism (v2.0)

Vast majority of fields operate independent of such questions Anthropology, history, music, social science… Biology, engineering, meteorology,

pharmacology…

Why is there resistance?

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TOWARDS CONSILIENCE Fear of deprecation of one’s own discipline?

Fear of unknowns outside one’s own discipline? Purity of disciplines

Fear of untried methods? False belief statistical models ignore the x%

minority

Fear of results? Zero-intelligence – we are not so smart after all Nor are we “special”

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TOWARDS CONSILIENCE

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TOWARDS CONSILIENCE How? New attitudes toward education

Current system designed in/for Industrial Age Practicality Assembly line

Committee of Ten, 1892

Angus, D., and J. Mirel. 1999. The Failed Promise of the American High School, 1890–1995. New York: Teachers College Press. ISBN 0807738425.

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TOWARDS CONSILIENCE Current focus on STEM subjects

Why ingrain a divide between humanities and sciences?

Could the desire to dichotomize knowledge be a kink in our cultural transmission chain?

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TOWARDS CONSILIENCE The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot, 2010 English Biology (HeLa cells) History (Civil Rights Movement) Ethics (issues of race and class)

Complete integration of Knowledge (practical issues aside) New Renaissance of Knowledge

But more importantly…

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RECONCILIATION