The construction of the cultural niche: A biocultural model

Objective of the study is to develop a more precise model of culture as an evolutionary niche for the human species. Culture is encoded in cultural models and can be decomposed into three basic components: shared knowledge and understanding, referred to as cultural competence; alternate configurations of shared understanding, referred to as residual agreement; and social practice, referred to as cultural consonance. Individuals are thus located in a cultural Euclidean space of shared understanding, patterned divergence from that understanding, and social practice.

A follow-up sample (n = 64) of a larger survey sample was interviewed to collect data on cultural competence, residual agreement, and cultural consonance in five cultural domains. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling was used to examine dimensional structure. Cluster analysis was used to group respondents along these dimensions. The association of cluster membership with depression was examined using dummy variable regression analysis.

Multidimensional scaling was consistent with a three-dimensional structure. Based on measures of cultural competence, residual agreement, and cultural consonance, respondents clustered into three groups: the culturally proficient, the culturally knowledgeable, and the culturally distal. Individuals in the culturally proficient and knowledgeable groups reported fewer depressive symptoms than the culturally distal.

These results suggest a three-dimensional Euclidean structure of culture in which knowledge is shared, contested, and acted upon. Such a cultural niche likely emerged early in human evolution because of the enhanced survival value of shared and contested knowledge, verifiable through practice.