Cultural evolution

Common card · No. 431973

Cultural evolution is an evolutionary theory of social change. It follows from the definition of culture as the "information capable of affecting individuals' behavior that they acquire from other members of their species through teaching, imitation and other forms of social transmission". Cultural evolution is the change of this information over time. This theoretical framework uses concepts like cultural variants, transmission mechanisms, and selective pressures to model how ideas, behaviors, and technologies spread and change over time, enabling rapid adaptation beyond purely genetic means. Anthropologists originally developed the idea of cultural evolution, historically also known as sociocultural evolution, in the 19th century, stemming from Charles Darwin's research on evolution. Today, cultural evolution has become the basis for a growing field of scientific research in the social sciences, including anthropology, economics, psychology, and organizational studies. Previously, theorists...

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