1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910798435103321

Autore

Handwerker W. Penn

Titolo

The origin of cultures : how individual choices make cultures change / / W. Penn Handwerker

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London : , : Routledge, , 2016

ISBN

1-315-41773-1

1-315-41772-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (156 p.)

Collana

Key Questions in Anthropology : Little Books on Big Ideas

Disciplina

306

Soggetti

Culture - Origin

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

First published 2009 by Left Coast Press, Inc.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Half Title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface; 1. The Puzzle; What's This Thing Culture?; Directional Change in Productivity; Revolutions Produce Qualitative Change; Names Aren't Cultures; Many Cultures Intersect to Make a Person; A Thing, Sui Generis; Galton's Problem; The Argument in This Book; Selected Bibliography; 2. What Makes a Door?; What Exists Now Shapes What Comes Next; New Things Come from Old Things; What Exists Now Could Not Exist Without What Went Before; Why Cultures Must Evolve, Unexpectedly; What Sets Us Apart?; Selected Bibliography

3. Sensory Fields and Cultural OutputsDifferent Experiences Produce Different Cultures; Sensory Isolation and Information Flow; We Take Our Cultures with Us; We Learn from Our Neighbors; Information Volume Regulates How Much We Learn; Two Rules for Cultural Design; Cultural Dynamics; Selected Bibliography; 4. Why We Don't Learn What We Could; Why We Tell Good from Bad; Winnowing the Good from the Bad; Winnowing Makes for Incremental Change; How We Tell Good from Bad; What This Means; What Makes Consequences Change?; Cultural Evolution Shifts Course when Consequences Change

Selected Bibliography5. Consequences Depend on the Distribution of Power; Consequences Elicit Cultural Assumptions; A Fish Rots from the Head; Lower Level Power Concentrations Also  Unleash Violence; Subordinates Find Ways to Empower Themselves; A Shift in the



Distribution of Power Elicits New Cultural Assumptions; Selected Bibliography; 6. Lessons Learned; A Thought Experiment; People Do Violence to Defend Themselves; More Often than Not, Different Does Mean Better; How New Things Acquire Immense Power; What about the Future?; Selected Bibliography; Index; About the Author