This chapter examines the role of culture in intelligence and the implications that a cultural perspective has for understanding hereditary and environmental influences on intelligence. This discussion builds on work being conducted in the interdisciplinary perspective of cultural psychology (Bruner, 1990; Cole, 1990; Miller, 1994a; Shweder, 1990; Shweder & Sullivan, 1993). From this perspective, psychological processes are viewed as, in part, contextually and culturally constituted, if not also as contextually and culturally variable. Culture is seen as influencing which behaviors are considered to be intelligent, the processes underlying intelligent behavior, and the direction of intellectual development. It thus is essential to any theory that is oriented to understanding the respective contributions of hereditary and environmental factors in intelligence.

Traditionally, cultural considerations have tended to be taken into account in theories of intelligence solely from an ecological perspective, if at all (e.g., Berry, 1976; Dasen, Berry, & Witkin, 1979). From this ecological perspective, cultural forms are treated exclusively in functional terms as adapted to objective constraints given in the physical setting or in the social structure. While not denying the importance of an ecological view of culture, this chapter argues that cultural factors need to be understood as influences on intelligence that vary independently of ecological constraints.