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Human Nature Review 2002 Volume 2: 195-203 ( 13 May ) URL of this document http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/lock.html Essay Review The Possible Origin of Culture by Andy Lock, Professor of Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand. Review of The Evolution of Culture: An Interdisciplinary View Edited by Robin Dunbar, Chris Knight and Camilla Power Edinburgh University Press, 1999 Pp. xii + 257 There are four great systems whereby that phenomenon called 'life' variously sustains itself by moving information around in time. Three of these, the genetic system, the immune system, and the various nervous systems that support learning, are miracles of individual biology. Our understanding of each of these is conceptually united and underpinned by the Darwinian explication of 'selection'. Natural selection explains how a profusion of genotypes is winnowed down to a set of 'adapted' individuals. Clonal selection theory explains how a profusion of lymphocytes are selected by their fit to antigens. And as Skinner (1953: 430) has pointed out 'In certain respects [learning] resembles the natural selection of evolutionary theory. Just as genetic characteristics which arise as mutations are selected or discarded by their consequences, so novel forms of behavior are selected or discarded through reinforcement.' The fourth great system - culture - has never been satisfactorily fitted into this framework. The social systems of sub-human animals have proved to be explainable within an evolutionary framework, but human culture is more elusive. Cultural behaviour has a moral component rooted in self-awareness that the other systems do not display. It is fundamental to the maintenance of cultures that the individuals who make them up must have some awareness of their social standing with respect to age, sex, hierarchies of social standing, etc, for 'if [they] were not aware of [their] roles they would not be in a position to appraise their own conduct in terms of traditional values and social sanctions' (Hallowell, 1971: 83); they would not be able to provide an acceptable account of their actions when called to do so upon transgressing 'custom' - accounts which draw on the local 'social constructs' of the group; and without such an awareness, human groups would be, if they could even exist under such conditions, little more than a collection of mindless sociopaths. Culture has thus, within the social sciences, come to be felt of as something 'beyond biology', with socio-biological Darwinism being reacted to as an ideological construct rather than an applicable scientific framework. The aim of the present volume is to counter this rejection by asking evolutionary questions about culture: 'What is a 'social construct'? Under what selection pressures did such morally compulsive intangibles become invented, believed in and held up for respect?' (p. 5). It is divided into three sections: the evolution of society; the evolution of art and religion; the evolution of language. The chapters are brief at around 20 pages each (bar one). They are packed with information, but generally very well written and thus their arguments are all accessible. And at the same time, fascinating. Full text http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/lock.html Other reviews at http://human-nature.com/nibbs/contents.html LETTERS TO THE EDITOR should be addressed to [log in to unmask]