Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T07:47:26.495Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cultural adaptation to environmental change versus stability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2013

Lei Chang ,
Bin-Bin Chen  and
Hui Jing Lu
Lei Chang
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. leichang@cuhk.edu.hkhttp://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/eps/people/changl.html
Bin-Bin Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. chenbinbin@fudan.edu.cnhttp://ice.ssdpp.fudan.edu.cn/%E9%99%88%E6%96%8C%E6%96%8C/
Hui Jing Lu
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong, China. huijing.lu@polyu.edu.hkhttp://www.polyu.edu.hk/apss/v2/article.php?article_id=75&pid=0
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The target article provides an intermediate account of culture and freedom that is conceived to be curvilinear by treating economic development not as an adaptive outcome in response to climate but as a cause of culture parallel to climate. We argue that the extent of environmental variability, including climatic variability, affects cultural adaptation.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 5 , October 2013 , pp. 485 - 486
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ash, J. & Gallup, G. G. Jr. (2007) Paleoclimatic variation and brain expansion during human evolution. Human Nature 18:109–24.Google Scholar
Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. (2005) The origin and evolution of culture. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cashdan, E. (2001) Ethnic diversity and its environmental determinants: Effects of climate, pathogens, and habitat diversity. American Anthropologist 103:968–91.Google Scholar
Chang, L., Mak, M. C. K., Li, T., Wu, B. P., Lu, H. J. & Chen, B. B. (2011) Cultural adaptations to environmental variability: An evolutionary account of East–West differences. Educational Psychology Review 23:99–29.Google Scholar
Fincher, C. L. & Thornhill, R. (2012) Parasite-stress promotes in-group assortative sociality: The cases of strong family ties and heightened religiosity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 35:61–79.Google Scholar
Jerison, H. J. (1973) Evolution of the brain and intelligence. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Klein, R. (2002) The dawn of human culture. John Wiley.Google Scholar
Loutre, M., Paillard, D., Vimeux, F. & Cortijo, E. (2004) Does mean annual insolation have the potential to change the climate? Earth and Planetary Science Letters 221:1–14.Google Scholar
Masters, W. A. & McMillan, M. S. (2001) Climate and scale in economic growth. Journal of Economic Growth 6:167–86.Google Scholar
Mercuri, A. M., Sadori, L. & Ollero, P. U. (2011) Mediterranean and north-African cultural adaptations to mid-Holocene environmental and climatic changes. Holocene 21:189–206.Google Scholar
Nordhaus, W. D. (2006) Geography and macroeconomics: New data and new findings. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences 103:3510–17.Google Scholar
Potts, R. (1998) Variability selection in hominid evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology 7:81–96.Google Scholar
Stevens, G. C. (1989) The latitudinal gradient in how geographical range: So many species coexist in the tropics. American Naturalist 133:240–56.Google Scholar
Strulik, H. (2008) Geography, health, and the pace of demo-economic development. Journal of Development Economics 86:61–75.Google Scholar
Wu, B. P. & Chang, L. (2012) The social impact of pathogen threat: How disease salience influences conformity. Personality and Individual Differences 53:50–54.Google Scholar