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Shamanism and the social nature of cumulative culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2018

Mark Nielsen ,
Ronald Fischer  and
Yoshihisa Kashima
Mark Nielsen
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. nielsen@psy.uq.edu.auhttp://www.psy.uq.edu.au/people/personal.html?id=636
Ronald Fischer
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, 6012 Wellington, New Zealand. ronald.fischer@vuw.ac.nzhttps://www.victoria.ac.nz/psyc/about/staff/ronald-fischer
Yoshihisa Kashima
Affiliation:
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia. ykashima@unimelb.edu.auhttps://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/display/person15492
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Abstract

Our species-unique capacity for cumulative culture relies on a complex interplay between social and cognitive motivations. Attempting to understand much of human behaviour will be incomplete if one of these motivations is the focus at the expense of the other. Anchored in gene-culture co-evolution theory, we stake a claim for the importance of social drivers in determining why shamans exist.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e81
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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