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Clarifying the time frame and units of selection in the cultural group selection hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Andrew Whiten  and
David Erdal
Andrew Whiten
Affiliation:
Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9JP, United Kingdom. aw2@st-andrews.ac.ukwww.st-andrews.ac.uk/profile/aw2
David Erdal
Affiliation:
School of Management, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, KY16 9RJ, United Kingdom. david@erdal.org.uk
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Abstract

We raise and discuss two issues for clarification. First, over what timescale is cultural group selection proposed to have been active? Unprecedented cooperation is inferred to have arisen in hunter-gather life well before the recent period on which Richerson et al. focus. Second, what is the unit of selection? Groups (of human individuals)? Or cultural entities along the lines of “meme-complexes”?

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e57
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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