Behavioral and Brain Sciences
- Behavioral and Brain Sciences / Volume 30 / Issue 04 / August 2007, pp 374-374
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X07002324 (About DOI), Published online: 17 December 2007
Open Peer Commentary
Extended evolutionary theory makes human culture more amenable to evolutionary analysis
Alex Mesoudia1
a1 Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3RQ, United Kingdom. am786@cam.ac.uk http://amesoudi.googlepages.com
Abstract
Jablonka & Lamb's (J&L's) extended evolutionary theory is more amenable to being applied to human cultural change than standard neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory. However, the authors are too quick to dismiss past evolutionary approaches to human culture. They also overlook a potential parallel between evolved genetic mechanisms that enhance evolvability and learned cognitive mechanisms that enhance learnability.
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