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SUMMARY:The Evolution of Culture - Prof Kevin N. Laland (School of Biology
 \, University of St Andrews)
DTSTART:20141029T163000Z
DTEND:20141029T173000Z
UID:TALK55405@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Aurélien Mounier
DESCRIPTION:Both demographically and ecologically\, humans are a remarkabl
 y successful species. This success is often attributed to our capacity for
  culture. But how did our species’ extraordinary cultural capabilities e
 volve from their roots in animal social learning and tradition? I will pro
 vide a provisional answer. After characterizing contemporary research into
  animal social learning\, I will describe the findings of an international
  competition (the ‘social learning strategies tournament’) that we org
 anized to investigate the best way to learn. I will suggest that the tourn
 ament sheds light on why copying is widespread in nature\, and why humans 
 happen to be so good at it. I will go on to describe some other theoretica
 l and experimental projects suggesting feedback mechanisms that may have b
 een instrumental to the evolution of culture. These include comparative st
 atistical analyses across primates that revealed that innovation and socia
 l learning frequencies co-vary positively with relative brain size\, sugge
 sting that these abilities were instrumental in driving the evolution of t
 he large primate brain\, a mathematical model of the evolution of teaching
 \, and an experimental study of the cognitive underpinnings of cumulative 
 culture\, in children\, chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys.
LOCATION:BioAnth Lecture Theatre (Room 41)\, Division of Biological Anthro
 pology\, Pembroke Street\, Cambridge\, CB2 3QG
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