Explaining culture scientifically / edited by Melissa J. Brown.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-357) and index.

Introduction, Developing a scientific paradigm for understanding culture / Melissa J. Brown -- Some kinds of causal powers that make up culture / Roy D'Andrade -- Culture in evolution : toward an integration of chimpanzee and human cultures / Christophe Boesch -- Dissent with modification : cultural evolution and social niche construction / Marcus W. Feldman -- Cultural evolution : accomplishments and future prospects / Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd -- Conditions for the spread of culturally transmitted costly punishment of sib mating / Kenichi Aoki, Yasuo Ihara, and Marcus W. Feldman -- Sexually transmitted infections as biomarkers of cultural behavior / James Holland Jones -- When culture affects behavior : a new look at kuru / William H. Durham -- When culture does not affect behavior : the structural basis of ethnic identity / Melissa J. Brown -- Cultural species / Joseph Henrich -- Culture matters : inferences from comparative behavioral experiments and evolutionary models / Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis -- Cultural evolution and uxorilocal marriage in China : a second opinion / Arthur P. Wolf -- When theory is data : coming to terms with "culture" as a way of life / Gregory Starrett -- Studying "culture" scientifically as an oxymoron : the interesting question is why people don't accept this / Robert Borofsky -- Epilogue, Future considerations / Melissa J. Brown.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

"What exactly is culture? The authors of this volume suggest that the study of one of anthropology's central questions may be a route to developing a scientific paradigm for the field. The contributors - prominent scholars in anthropology, biology, and economics - approach culture from very different theoretical and methodological perspectives, through studies grounded in fieldwork, surveys, demography, and other empirical data. From humans to chimpanzees, from Taiwan to New Guinea, from cannibalism to marriage patterns, this volume directly addresses the challenges of explaining culture scientifically. The evolutionary paradigm lends itself particularly well to the question of culture; in these essays, different modes of inheritance - genetic, cultural, ecological, and structural - illustrate evolutionary patterns in a variety of settings." "Explaining Culture Scientifically is necessary reading for scholars and students in anthropology and related disciplines."--Jacket.

eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - Worldwide