An evolutionary framework for cultural change: selectionism versus communal exchange

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Social sciences
• Cultural evolution

Background:

• Dawkins' replicator theory misapplies selectionism in social sciences.
• Organisms accumulate change despite acquired traits being lost.
• Von Neumann's self-replicating automaton (SRA) model addresses this paradox.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an evolutionary framework for culture distinct from selectionism.
• To explore non-Darwinian processes in biological and cultural evolution.
• To identify cognitive features necessary for cultural evolution in societies.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of self-replicating automaton (SRA) concepts.
• Examination of cultural evolution mechanisms, contrasting with biological inheritance.
• Proposal and support of communal exchange as a cultural evolutionary framework.
• Computational modeling and conceptual network programming for cultural evolution.

Main Results:

• Cultural evolution lacks a mechanism for discarding acquired change, unlike biological evolution.
• Acquired changes in culture can rapidly overwhelm inherited changes.
• Communal exchange, a non-Darwinian process, provides a viable evolutionary framework for culture.
• The proposed framework supports cognitive features for societal cultural evolution.

Conclusions:

• A selectionist framework is insufficient for cultural evolution.
• Non-Darwinian processes like communal exchange are crucial for understanding biological and cultural evolution.
• The communal exchange framework is supported by computational models and aligns with human cooperation.