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Cognition and Culture in Evolutionary Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2017

Fernando Colmenares  and
María Victoria Hernández-Lloreda
Fernando Colmenares*
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense (Spain)
María Victoria Hernández-Lloreda
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense (Spain)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Fernando Colmenares. Facultad de Psicología. Universidad Complutense. Campus de Somosaguas. 28223. Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid (Spain). Phone +34–913943070. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In humans and other animals, the individuals’ ability to adapt efficiently and effectively to the niches they have actively contributed to construct relies heavily on an evolved psychology which has been shaped by biological, social, and cultural processes over evolutionary time. As expected, although many of the behavioral and cognitive components of this evolved psychology are widely shared across species, many others are species-unique. Although many animal species are known to acquire group-specific traditions (or cultures) via social learning, human culture is unique in terms of its contents and characteristics (observable and unobservable products, cumulative effects, norm conformity, and norm enforcement) and of its cognitive underpinnings (imitation, instructed teaching, and language). Here we provide a brief overview of some of the issues that are currently tackled in the field. We also highlight some of the strengths of a biological, comparative, non-anthropocentric and evolutionarily grounded approach to the study of culture. The main contributions of this approach to the science of culture are its emphasis (a) on the integration of information on mechanisms, function, and evolution, and on mechanistic factors located at different levels of the biological hierarchy, and (b) on the search for general principles that account for commonalities and differences between species, both in the cultural products and in the processes of innovation, dissemination, and accumulation involved that operate during developmental and evolutionary timespans.

Keywords

cognitioncomparative approachcultureevolutionary contextsocial learning
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 19 , 2016 , E101
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2017 

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