If we are all cultural Darwinians what’s the fuss about? Clarifying recent disagreements in the field of cultural evolution

TLDR

Cultural evolution is often framed as a Darwinian process, but the extent to which the genetic analogy applies—particularly whether cultural transmission is preservative or reconstructive—remains debated and has caused confusion. The authors aim to clarify the debate over whether cultural transmission is preservative or reconstructive, review empirical studies on both processes, and discuss how their relative importance varies with analytical granularity and domain. They clarify the two positions, note their compatibility, and review experimental research that has investigated both preservative and reconstructive cultural transmission.

Abstract

Cultural evolution studies are characterized by the notion that culture evolves accordingly to broadly Darwinian principles. Yet how far the analogy between cultural and genetic evolution should be pushed is open to debate. Here, we examine a recent disagreement that concerns the extent to which cultural transmission should be considered a preservative mechanism allowing selection among different variants, or a transformative process in which individuals recreate variants each time they are transmitted. The latter is associated with the notion of "cultural attraction". This issue has generated much misunderstanding and confusion. We first clarify the respective positions, noting that there is in fact no substantive incompatibility between cultural attraction and standard cultural evolution approaches, beyond a difference in focus. Whether cultural transmission should be considered a preservative or reconstructive process is ultimately an empirical question, and we examine how both preservative and reconstructive cultural transmission has been studied in recent experimental research in cultural evolution. Finally, we discuss how the relative importance of preservative and reconstructive processes may depend on the granularity of analysis and the domain being studied.