Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T15:06:32.959Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Intersubjectivity and social learning: Representation of beliefs enables the accumulation of cultural knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

Carles Salazar*
Affiliation:
Department of Art and Social History (Anthropology Program), Faculty of Arts, University of Lleida, Plaça Víctor Siurana, 1, E25003Lleida, Spain. [email protected]; http://www.hahs.udl.cat/ca/personal-academic/pagina-1/carles-salazar-carrasco/

Abstract

I accept the main thesis of the article according to which representation of knowledge is more basic than representation of belief. But I question the authors’ contention that humans' unique capacity to represent belief does not underwrite the capacity for the accumulation of cultural knowledge.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bentley, R. A., & O'Brien, M. J. (2011). The selectivity of social learning and the tempo of cultural evolution. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 9(2), 125141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and the evolutionary process. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., & Feldman, M. W. (1981). Cultural transmission and evolution. A quantitative approach. Princeton University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Csibra, G., & Gergely, G. (2006). Social learning and social cognition. The case for pedagogy. In Munakata, Y. & Johnson (, M. H.Eds.), Processes of change in brain and cognitive development. Attention and performance (pp. 249274). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Demps, K., Zorondo-Rodríguez, F., García, C., & Reyes-García, V. (2012). Social learning across the life cycle: Cultural knowledge acquisition for honey collection among the Jenu Kuruba, India. Evolution and Human Behavior, 33, 460470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrich, J. (2015). The secret of our success. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewlett, B. S., & Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (1986). Cultural transmission among Aka pigmies. American Anthropologist, 88, 922934.Google Scholar
Hewlett, B. S., Fouts, H. N., & Boyette, A. H. (2011). Social learning among Congo Basin hunter-gatherers. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 366, 11691178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kline, M. A. (2015) How to learn about teaching: An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behaviour in humans and other animals. Behavioral and Brian Sciences, e31, 171. doi:10.1017/S0140525X14000090.Google Scholar
McElreath, R., & Strimling, P. (2008). When natural selection favors imitation of parents. Current Anthropology, 49(2), 307315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, M. (2008). The social motivation for social learning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 33. doi:10.1017/S0140525X0700324X.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osiurak, F., & Reynaud, E. (2020). The elephant in the room: What matters cognitively in cumulative technological culture. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, e156, 1–66. doi:10.1017/S0140525X19003236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salazar, C. (2014). Understanding belief: Some qualitative evidence. Journal of Empirical Theology, 2(27), 199213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salazar, C. (2018). Explaining human diversity. Cultures, minds, evolution. Routledge.Google Scholar
Sterelny, K. (2012). The evolved apprentice. How evolution made humans unique. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tennie, C., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2009). Ratcheting up the ratchet: On the evolution of cumulative culture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 24052415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T., & Mol, H. (2005). Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 675735.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tomasello, M., Kruger, A., & Ratner, H. (1993). Cultural learning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16(3), 495511. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X0003123X.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veissière, S. P. L., Constant, A., Ramstead, M. J. D., Friston, K. J., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2020). Thinking through other minds: A variational approach to cognition and culture. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, e90, 1–75. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X19001213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whiten, A. (2017). A comparative and evolutionary analysis of the cultural cognition of humans and other apes. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 19, e98, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zuidema, W. (2002). The importance of social learning in the evolution of cooperation and communication. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25, 283284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar