Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T12:35:21.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Keeping cultural in cultural evolutionary psychology: Culture shapes indigenous psychologies in specific ecologies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2019

Rita Anne McNamara Open the ORCID record for Rita Anne McNamara [Opens in a new window]  and
Tia Neha
Rita Anne McNamara
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. [email protected]@vuw.ac.nzhttp://ramcnama.wordpress.com/https://tewhanaulab.wordpress.com/
Tia Neha
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. [email protected]@vuw.ac.nzhttp://ramcnama.wordpress.com/https://tewhanaulab.wordpress.com/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Cognitive Gadgets, Heyes seeks to unite evolutionary psychology with cultural evolutionary theory. Although we applaud this unifying effort, we find it falls short of considering how culture itself evolves to produce indigenous psychologies fitted to particular environments. We focus on mentalizing and autobiographical memory as examples of how socialization practices embedded within culture build cognitive adaptations.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e179
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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

Barrett, H. C., Bolyanatz, A., Crittenden, A. N., Fessler, D. M. T., Fitzpatrick, S., Gurven, M., Henrich, J., Kanovsky, M., Kushnick, G., Pisor, A., Scelza, B. A., Stich, S., von Rueden, C., Zhao, W. & Laurence, S. (2016) Small-scale societies exhibit fundamental variation in the role of intentions in moral judgment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 113(17):4688–93. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1522070113.Google Scholar
Barrett, H. C., Broesch, T., Scott, R. M., He, Z., Baillargeon, R., Di Wu, , et al. (2013) Early false-belief understanding in traditional non-Western societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280(1755):20122654. Available at: Available at: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.2654.Google Scholar
Callaghan, T., Rochat, P., Lillard, A., Claux, M. L., Odden, H., Itakura, S., Tapanya, S. & Singh, S. (2005) Synchrony in the onset of mental-state reasoning: Evidence from five cultures. Psychological Science 16(5):378–84. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01544.x.Google Scholar
Carr, A., Slade, L., Yuill, N., Sullivan, S. & Ruffman, T. (2018) Minding the children: A longitudinal study of mental state talk, theory of mind, and behavioural adjustment from the age of 3 to 10. Social Development 27(4):826–40. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12315.Google Scholar
Choi, I., Nisbett, R. E. & Norenzayan, A. (1999) Causal attribution across cultures: Variation and universality. Psychological Bulletin 125(1):47–63. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.125.1.47.Google Scholar
Clegg, J. M. & Legare, C. H. (2016) A cross-cultural comparison of children's imitative flexibility. Developmental Psychology 52(9):1435–44. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000131.Google Scholar
Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (1996) Are humans good intuitive statisticians after all? Rethinking some conclusions from the literature on judgment under uncertainty. Cognition 58(1):1–73.Google Scholar
Danziger, E. & Rumsey, A. (2013) Introduction: From Opacity to intersubjectivity across languages and cultures. Language and Communication 33(3):247–50. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2013.07.004.Google Scholar
Duranti, A. (2015) The anthropology of intentions: Language in a world of others. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fincher, C. L. & Thornhill, R. (2012) Parasite-stress promotes in-group assortative sociality: The cases of strong family ties and heightened religiosity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 39(2–3):155–160. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/parasitestress-promotes-ingroup-assortative-sociality-the-cases-of-strong-family-ties-and-heightened-religiosity/0331C3331E16F6C15BB9A5AF1AA07108.Google Scholar
Fivush, R. (2001) Owning experience: The development of subjective perspective in autobiographical memory. In: The self in time: Developmental perspectives, ed. Moore, C. & Lemmon, K., pp. 35–52. Erlbaum. Available at: https://doi-org.helicon.vuw.ac.nz/10.4324/9781410600684.Google Scholar
Fivush, R., Haden, C. A. & Reese, E. (2006) Elaborating on elaborations: Role of maternal reminiscing style in cognitive and socioemotional development. Child Development 77(6):1568–88. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4139261.Google Scholar
Fivush, R. & Nelson, K. (2004) Culture and language in the emergence of autobiographical memory. Psychological Science 15(9):573–577. doi: 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00722.x.Google Scholar
Gelfand, M. J., Raver, J. L., Nishii, L., Leslie, L. M., Lun, J., Lim, B. C., Duan, L., Almaliach, A., Ang, S., Arnadottir, J., Aycan, Z., Boehnke, K., Boski, P., Cabecinhas, R., Chan, D., Chhokar, J., D'Amato, A., Ferrer, M., Fischlmayr, I. C., Fischer, R., Fülöp, M., Georgas, J., Kashima, E. S., Kashima, Y., Kim, K., Lempereur, A., Marquez, P., Othman, R., Overlaet, B., Panagiotopoulou, P., Peltzer, K., Perez-Florizno, L. R., Ponomarenko, L., Realo, A., Schei, V., Schmitt, M., Smith, P. B., Soomro, N., Szabo, E., Taveesin, N., Toyama, M., Van de Vliert, E., Vohra, N., Ward, C. & Tamaguchi, S. (2011) Differences between tight and loose cultures: A 33-nation study. Science 332(6033):1100–04. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1197754.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, P. (2012) Darwinism and cultural change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 367(1599):2160–70. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0118.Google Scholar
Henrich, J. (2015) The secret of our success: How culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species and making us smarter. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010) The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 61–135. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999152X.Google Scholar
Hewlett, B. S. (2016) Teaching in hunter-gatherer infancy. Royal Society Open Science 3(1):150403. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150403.Google Scholar
Heyes, C. (2018) Cognitive gadgets: The cultural evolution of thinking. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hofstede, G. (1986) Cultural differences in teaching and learning. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 10(3):301–20. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/0147-1767(86)90015-5.Google Scholar
Hruschka, D. J., Efferson, C., Jiang, T., Falletta-Cowden, A., Sigurdsson, S., McNamara, R., Sands, M., Munira, S., Slingerland, E. & Henrich, J. (2014) Impartial institutions, pathogen stress and the expanding social network. Human Nature 25(4):567–79. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-014-9217-0.Google Scholar
Hughes, C., Devine, R. T. & Wang, Z. (2017) Does parental mind-mindedness account for cross-cultural differences in preschoolers’ theory of mind? Child Development 89(4):1296–1310. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12746.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. (1997) Modernization, postmodernization and changing perceptions of risk. International Review of Sociology 7(3):449–59. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.1997.9971250.Google Scholar
Kim, U. & Park, Y.-S. (2006) The scientific foundation of indigenous and cultural psychology – The transactional approach. In: Indigenous and cultural psychology: Understanding people in context, ed. Kim, U., Yang, K-S. & Hwang, K-K., pp. 27–48. Springer. Available at: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/0-387-28662-4_2.pdf.Google Scholar
Kline, M. A., Boyd, R. & Henrich, J. (2013) Teaching and the life history of cultural transmission in Fijian villages. Human Nature 24(4):351–74. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-013-9180-1.Google Scholar
Kline, M. A., Shamsudheen, R. & Broesch, T. (2018) Variation is the universal: Making cultural evolution work in developmental psychology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 373(1743):20170059. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0059.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972) Language in the inner city: Studies in the black English vernacular. University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lancy, D. F. & Grove, M. A. (2010) The role of adults in children's learning. In: The anthropology of learning in childhood, ed. Lancy, D. F., Bock, J. C. & Gaskins, S., pp. 145–180. AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Lillard, A. A. (1998) Ethnopsychologies: Cultural variations in theories of mind. Psychological Bulletin 123(1):3–32.Google Scholar
Luhrmann, T. (2011) Toward an anthropological theory of mind. Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 36(4):5–69.Google Scholar
MacDonald, S., Uesiliana, K. & Hayne, H. (2000) Cross-cultural and gender differences in childhood amnesia. Memory 8(6):365–76. doi: 10.1080/09658210050156822.Google Scholar
Mayer, A. & Träuble, B. E. (2013) Synchrony in the onset of mental state understanding across cultures? A study among children in Samoa. International Journal of Behavioral Development 37(1):21–28. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1177/0165025412454030.Google Scholar
McNamara, R. A., Willard, A. K., Norenzayan, A. & Henrich, J. (2019) Weighing outcome vs. intent across societies: How cultural models of mind shape moral reasoning. Cognition 182:95–108. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.09.008.Google Scholar
Norenzayan, A., Choi, I. & Nisbett, R. E. (1999) Eastern and Western perceptions of causality for social behavior: Lay theories about personalities and situations. In: Cultural divides: Understanding and overcoming group conflict, ed. Prentice, D. A. & Miller, D. T., pp. 239–72. Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Norris, P. & Inglehart, R. (2004) Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Okpewho, I. (1992) African oral literature: Backgrounds, character, and continuity. Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Pere, R. R. (1982) Ako: Concepts and learning in the Māori tradition: University of Waikato, Department of Sociology.Google Scholar
Pyers, J. E. & Senghas, A. (2009) Language promotes false-belief understanding: Evidence from learners of a new sign language. Psychological Science 20(7):805–12. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02377.x.Google Scholar
Reese, E. & Neha, T (2015) Let's kōrero (talk): The practice and functions of reminiscing among mothers and children in Māori families. Memory 23(1):99–110, doi: 10.1080/09658211.2014.929705.Google Scholar
Reese, E., Taumoepeau, M. & Neha, T. (2014) Remember drawing on the cupboard? New Zealand Maori, European, and Pasifika parents’ conversations about children's transgressions. In: Talking about right and wrong parent-child conversations as contexts for moral development, ed. Wainryb, C. & Recchia, H. E., pp. 44–70. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rewi, P. (2013) Whaikōrero: The world of Māori oratory. Auckland University Press.Google Scholar
Richerson, P. J. & Boyd, R. (2005) Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Robbins, J. & Rumsey, A. (2008) Introduction: Cultural and linguistic anthropology and the opacity of other minds. Anthropological Quarterly 81(2):407–20.Google Scholar
Slaughter, V. & Zapata, D. P. (2014) Cultural variations in the development of mind reading. Child Development Perspectives 8(4):237–41. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12091.Google Scholar
Taumoepeau, M. & Ruffman, T. (2008) Stepping stones to others’ minds: Maternal talk relates to child mental state language and emotion understanding at 15, 24, and 33 months. Child Development 79(2):284–302. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01126.x.Google Scholar
Taumoepeau, M. & Ruffman, T. (2016) Self-awareness moderates the relation between maternal mental state language about desires and children's mental state vocabulary. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 144:114–29. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.11.012.Google Scholar
Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (1992) The psychological foundations of culture. In: The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, pp. 19–136. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Van de Vliert, E. (2008) Climate, affluence, and culture. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Van de Vliert, E. (2011) Climato-economic origins of variation in ingroup favoritism. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 42(3):494–515. http://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110381120. [RAM]Google Scholar
Vinden, P. G. (2001) Parenting attitudes and children's understanding of mind: A comparison of Korean American and Anglo-American families. Cognitive Development 16(3):793–809. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(01)00059-4.Google Scholar