Methodological difficulties in explaining human culture

Methodological difficulties in explaining human culture

Cumulative cultural evolution occurs when modifications to cultural artefacts and practices are preserved over generations, leading to successive improvement. Human cumulative culture is thought to be unique. Theorists often attribute this uniqueness to either human-specific technical cognition or social cognition. I argue that attempts to determine the cognitive "difference-maker" between human and animal culture which rely on developmental and experimental psychology are flawed. In particular, they pose methodological difficulties in making inferences from modern humans to our ancestors, and encourage "magic-bullet" style thinking. I propose narrative explanations as an alternative methodology.

Venue: Byrne House, University of Exeter (spaces limited)

Virtual: via Zoom

Data Protection and Privacy

• To aid organisation of this event, attendee information may be shared with relevant staff in the University e.g. a list of attendees could be provided to the University host, guest speaker.
• We will store your information securely, so that we can communicate to you about the event (e.g. cancellation of event, changes to the itinerary, a satisfaction survey).
• We delete our access to personal information on Eventbrite after 6 months.
• More information on the University’s privacy policies can be found here.
• For more information on Eventbrite’s own privacy policy, please visit this page.