“Humans evolved big brains to be better problem-solvers.” is a popular notion, but it has some conspicuous holes. Evolutionary biologist Joseph Henrich has an alternate hypothesis: what if we’re evolved to be culture machines?
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The Secret of Our Success, 2016 talk by Joseph Henrich - https://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/Events-Assets/PDF/2016/20160622-Joseph-Henrich-PPT.pdf
Foundations of Human Sociality: Economic Experiments and Ethnographic Evidence from Fifteen Small-Scale Societies (Henrich et al, 2004) - https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7e75/386eddd1079d96faa18aa6dd69a7c9fa7168.pdf
Cultural Transmission and the Diffusion of Innovations: Adoption Dynamics Indicate That Biased Cultural Transmission Is the Predominate Force in Behavioral Change (Henrich 2001) - https://henrich.fas.harvard.edu/files/henrich/files/henrich_2001.pdf
The evolution of cultural evolution (Henrich & McElreath, 2003) - https://henrich.fas.harvard.edu/files/henrich/files/henrich_mcelreath_2003.pdf
Culturegene coevolution, norm-psychology and the emergence of human prosociality (Chudek & Henrich, 2011) - https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~henrich/pdfs/culture%20gene%20coevolution_Chudek&Henrichpublished.pdf
Imitation and Innovation: Dual Engines of Cultural Learning (Legare & Nielsen, 2015) - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53485734e4b0fffc0dcc64c2/t/5787b708e6f2e11d7cc975cd/1468512009501/imitation-and-innovation.pdf
The cultural niche: Why social learning is essential for human adaptation (Boyd et al, 2011) - https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/108/Supplement_2/10918.full.pdf
Social Learning Strategies (Laland, 2004) - https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758/BF03196002.pdf
The Origin of Modern Human Behavior: Critique of the Models and Their Test Implications (Henshilwood & Marean, 2003) - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249179638_The_Origin_of_Modern_Human_Behavior_Critique_of_the_Models_and_Their_Test_Implications/link/53f4d87a0cf2fceacc6eabb0/download https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_inheritance_theory#Shortcomings_and_Criticisms
The Secret of Our Success - https://canvas.harvard.edu/files/1126405/download?download_frd=1&verifier=ZjtJpREzsndYYtrzLcTxEKTDP4wTWUzyKYOMsW1m
https://www.susanblackmore.uk/articles/evolution-and-memes-the-human-brain-as-a-selective-imitation-device/
Humans Have Evolved Specialized Skills of Social Cognition: The Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6017734_Humans_Have_Evolved_Specialized_Skills_of_Social_Cognition_The_Cultural_Intelligence_Hypothesis
https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/04/book-review-the-secret-of-our-success/
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2015.0192