Institutions as Mechanisms of Cultural Evolution: Prospects of the Epidemiological Approach (original) (raw)
Related papers
On the Joint Evolution of Culture and Institutions
2017
What accounts for economic growth and prosperity? What stands at their origin? Recent literature typically searches for single univariate causal explanations: institutions, culture, human capital, geography. In this paper we provide instead a first theoretical modeling of the interaction between different possible explanations for growth and prosperity (in particular, between culture and institutions) and their effects on economic activity. Depending on the economic environment, culture and institutions might complement each other, giving rise to a multiplier effect, or on the contrary they can act as substitutes, contrasting each other and limiting their combined ability to spur economic activity. By means of examples we show how the dynamics display non-ergodic behavior, cycles, and other interestingly complex phenomena.
The Evolution of Social Institutions, 2020
This book presents a novel and innovative approach to the study of social evolution using case studies from the Old and the New World, from prehistory to the present. This approach is based on examining social evolution through the evolution of social institutions. Evolution is defined as the process of structural change. Within this framework the society, or culture, is seen as a system composed of a vast number of social institutions that are constantly interacting and changing. As a result, the structure of society as a whole is also evolving and changing. The authors posit that the combination of evolving social institutions explains the non-linear character of social evolution and that every society develops along its own pathway and pace. Within this framework, society should be seen as the result of the compound effect of the interactions of social institutions specific to it. Further, the transformation of social institutions and relations between them is taking place not only within individual societies but also globally, as institutions may be trans-societal, and even institutions that operate in one society can arise as a reaction to trans-societal trends and demands. The book argues that it may be more productive to look at institutions even within a given society as being parts of trans-societal systems of institutions since, despite their interconnectedness, societies still have boundaries, which their members usually know and respect. Accordingly, the book is a must-read for researchers and scholars in various disciplines who are interested in a better understanding of the origins, history, successes and failures of social institutions.
The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 2020
Introduction describes the main aim of the volume as to present a novel approach to the study of social evolution. This approach is based on a look at, and analysis of social evolution through the evolution of social institutions associated with the rise and development of social complexity. Evolution is defined as the process of structural change. Within this framework, the society, or culture, is seen as a system composed of a great number of various social institutions that are interacting and changing. As a result, the whole structure of society is changing, that is evolving. Evolution does not have any particular direction, as any significant (that is, transforming the societal structure in any direction) change is evolutionary. Introduction gives an outline of the history of the notion of social institution and its conceptualization, and describes social institutions’ main characteristics and functions. It also summarizes the volume’s theoretical chapters and case studies.
'The Evolution of Social Institutions': Review and Prospect (Gary M. Feinman, 2021)
Social Evolution & History 20 (2):198–208, 2021
The Evolution of Social Institutions' is a tome with a significant message, composed of 28 chapters by 23 authors. Arranged in three sections (Theoretical Approaches, the Old World, and the New World) and bracketed by a foregrounding Introduction (Bondarenko) and forwardlooking Conclusion (Small), the collection sets forth a new and significant analytical lens on the study of long-term structural change and comparative history. The book is global in scope with contributions that span from hunter-gatherers to industrial settings, from premodern to contemporary contexts, with authors drawing on a range of empirical sources that include archaeology, documents, ethnography, historical linguistics, and sociology. Focused explicitly, though not exclusively, on institutions (as opposed to individuals, polities, or holistic cultural units) and how they articulate and interrelate across time and geographic space to provoke change, the components of the volume offer convincing conceptual rationales and case-based exemplars that illustrate the intellectual rewards potentially accrued from an intensified scrutiny of institutions. Nevertheless, as the titular theme of the book is distributed somewhat unevenly across its 661 pages, I am afforded, through re
The Origin of Institutions: socio-economic processes, choice, norms and conventions
1999
Institutions, the way they are related to the behaviour of the agents and to the aggregated performance of socioeconomic systems, are the topic addressed by this essay. The research is based on a particular concept of a bounded rational agent living in society and by a population based simulation model that describes the processes of social learning. From simple coordination problems, where conventions spontaneously emerge, to situations of choice over alternative constitutional rules, simulation was used as a means to test the consistency and extract the implications of the models. Institutions, as solutions to recurring problems of social interaction, are both results and preconditions for social life, unintended outcomes and human devised constraints. In an evolutionary setting no support is found for the deep rooted beliefs about the 'naturally' beneficial outcomes generated by 'invisible-hand' processes or by any alternative Hobbesian metaagency.
Studying institutions in the context 2 of natural selection: limits or 3 opportunities? 4
Q2, Q3 9 response to our article on the role of evolutionary psychology in understanding 10 institutions (Boyer and Petersen, 2011). We discuss how evolutionary 11 psychological models account for cultural variation and change in institutions, 12 how sociological institutionalism and evolutionary models can inform each other, 13 how evolutionary psychological models illuminate the role of power in 14 institutional design and the possibility of a 'general theory'of institutions. 15 16
Human Cultures through the Scientific Lens: Essays in Evolutionary Cognitive Anthropology
2021
Most standard social science accounts only offer limited explanations of institutional design, i.e., why institutions have common features observed in many different human groups. Here, we suggest that these features are best explained as the outcome of evolved human cognition, in such domains as mating, moral judgment and social exchange. As empirical illustrations, we show how this evolved psychology makes marriage systems, legal norms and commons management systems intuitively obvious and compelling, thereby ensuring their occurrence and cultural stability. We extend this to propose under what conditions institutions can become 'natural', compelling and legitimate, and outline probable paths for institutional change given human cognitive dispositions. Explaining institutions in terms of these exogenous factors also suggests that a general theory of institutions as such is neither necessary nor in fact possible. What are required are domain-specific accounts of institutional design in different domains of evolved cognition. 1 An earlier version of this chapter was originally published as Boyer, P., & Petersen, MB. (2011). The naturalness of (many) social institutions: Evolutionary and Cognitive Background,
Introduction to the Special Issue on the Evolution of Institutions
2011
How can evolutionary ideas be applied to the study of social and political institutions? Charles Darwin identified the mechanisms of variation, selection and retention. He emphasized that evolutionary change depends on the uniqueness of every individual and its interactions within a population and with its environment. While introducing the contributions to this special issue, we examine some of the ontological positions underlying evolutionary theory, showing why they are appropriate for studying issues in economics, political science and sociology. We consider how these ideas might help us understand both institutional change and the formation of individual preferences. * the key insights suggested by evolutionary theorists across several disciplines and examine how they may help us better understand key conundrums confronted in political science and economics.