Roy Ellen - Understanding Cultural Transmission in Anthropology: A Critical Synthesis

Understanding Cultural Transmission in Anthropology

General Editor: David Parkin, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford

Volume 1

Marcel Mauss: A Centenary Tribute

Edited by Wendy James and N.J. Allen

Volume 2

Franz Baerman Steiner: Selected Writings Volume I: Taboo, Truth and Religion. Franz B. Steiner

Edited by Jeremy Adler and Richard Fardon

Volume 3

Franz Baerman Steiner. Selected Writings Volume II: Orientpolitik, Value, and Civilization. Franz B. Steiner

Edited by Jeremy Adler and Richard Fardon

Volume 4

The Problem of Context

Edited by Roy Dilley

Volume 5

Religion in English Everyday Life

By Timothy Jenkins

Volume 6

Hunting the Gatherers: Ethnographic Collectors, Agents and Agency in Melanesia, 1870s1930s

Edited by Michael OHanlon and Robert L. Welsch

Volume 7

Anthropologists in a Wider World: Essays on Field Research

Edited by Paul Dresch, Wendy James and David Parkin

Volume 8

Categories and Classifications: Maussian Reflections on the Social

By N.J. Allen

Volume 9

Louis Dumont and Hierarchical Opposition

By Robert Parkin

Volume 10

Categories of Self: Louis Dumonts Theory of the Individual

By Andr Celtel

Volume 11

Existential Anthropology: Events, Exigencies and Effects

By Michael Jackson

Volume 12

An Introduction to Two Theories of Social Anthropology

By Louis Dumont

Volume 13

Navigating Terrains of War: Youth and Soldiering in Guinea-Bissau

By Henrik E. Vigh

Volume 14

The Politics of Egalitarianism: Theory and Practice

Edited by Jacqueline Solway

Volume 15

A History of Oxford Anthropology

Edited by Peter Rivire

Volume 16

Holistic Anthropology: Emergence and Convergence

Edited by David Parkin and Stanley Ulijaszek

Volume 17

Learning Religion: Anthropological Approaches

Edited by David Berliner and Ramon Sarr

Volume 18

Ways of Knowing: New Approaches in the Anthropology of Knowledge and Learning

Edited by Mark Harris

Volume 19

Difficult Folk? A Political History of Social Anthropology

By David Mills

Volume 20

Human Nature as Capacity: Transcending Discourse and Classification

Edited by Nigel Rapport

Volume 21

The Life of Property: House, Family and Inheritance in Barn, South-West France

By Timothy Jenkins

Volume 22

Out of the Study and Into the Field: Ethnographic Theory and Practice in French Anthropology

Edited by Robert Parkin and Anna de Sales

Volume 23

The Scope of Anthropology: Maurice Godeliers Work in Context

Edited by Laurent Dousset and Serge Tcherkezoff

Volume 24

Anyone: The Cosmopolitan Subject of Anthropology

By Nigel Rapport

Volume 25

Up Close and Personal: On Peripheral Perspectives and the Production of Anthropological Knowledge

Edited by Cris Shore and Susanna Trnka

Volume 26

Understanding Cultural Transmission in Anthropology: A Critical Synthesis

Edited by Roy Ellen, Stephen J. Lycett and Sarah E. Johns

A Critical Synthesis

Edited by
Roy Ellen, Stephen J. Lycett and Sarah E. Johns

First published in 2013 by

Berghahn Books

www.berghahnbooks.com

2013 Roy Ellen, Stephen J. Lycett and Sarah E. Johns

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book
is available from the Library of Congress

Understanding cultural transmission in anthropology: a critical synthesis / edited by Roy Ellen, Stephen Lycett, and Sarah Johns. -- First edition.

pages cm. -- (Methodology and history in anthropology; v. 26)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-85745-993-0 (hardback: alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-85745-994-7 (institutional ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-78238-071-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-78238-072-6 (retail ebook)

1. Human evolution. 2. Social evolution. 3. Social systems. 4. Culture and communication. 5. Intercultural communication. 6. Ethnobiology. 7. Traditional ecological knowledge. I. Ellen, R. F., 1947

GN281.U56 2013

599.93'8--dc23

2013005578

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Printed in the United States on acid-free paper

ISBN 978-0-85745-993-0 (hardback)

ISBN 978-1-78238-071-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-0-85745-994-7 (institutional ebook)

ISBN 978-1-78238-072-6 (retail ebook)

Roy Ellen and Michael D. Fischer

Kevin Laland, Alice Cowie and Tom Morgan

Tatyana Humle and Nicholas E. Newton-Fisher

Stephen J. Lycett

Alex Mesoudi

Jamshid J. Tehrani and Mark Collard

Sean ONeill

Victoria Reyes-Garca, James Broesch and TAPS Bolivian Study Team

Stanford Zent

Rajindra K. Puri

Simon Platten

Harry G. West

Stephen Shennan

As humans, we are social animals who acquire much of our behaviour from other individuals of our species and who innovate new behaviours, which we in turn disseminate. In the process of leading our daily lives, we are constantly influenced by others in the way we behave, what we wear, the technology we use, the way we speak, and the political, moral and religious values that we come to hold. This process of transmission permeates every aspect of human society, and our beliefs, attitudes and customs have come to be the predominant means through which we have adapted and come to occupy our current dominant position in global life systems.

The study of human culture, and the diverse patterns of behaviour it creates, has traditionally defined the discipline of anthropology. In this volume, which has developed out of a seminar series organized by the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent, we have drawn together a diverse range of contributors from different disciplines. These span biology, primatology, palaeoanthropology, psychology, social anthropology, ethnobiology and archaeology, and examine social and cultural transmission from a range of perspectives. Anyone who has even tangentially encountered the existing literature on this topic will be well aware of the controversies surrounding the term culture with regard to its definition and its presence (or otherwise) in animals other than humans. Here, for the sake of pragmatism, we and other contributors largely use the terms social learning, social transmission and cultural transmission as synonyms, accepting that while animals other than humans undoubtedly learn behaviours via social interaction, the content and mode of transmission (and the resultant behavioural patterns) vary widely from species to species.