"Cultural Diversity in the Light of Evolution", Quentin Aktinson Colloquium Lecture

Date: 

Monday, March 28, 2016, 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Location: 

Science Center Hall A, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Abstract: Since Darwin, it has been recognized that human culture evolves in ways that “curiously parallel” biological evolution. The analogy is not perfect, but these broad parallels of process mean that evolutionary biologists and those studying human culture are interested in similar questions and can often use similar tools to answer those questions. In this talk I will show how methods and thinking from evolutionary biology can be productively adapted to shed light on human cultural diversity in domains as varied as language, religion and the fortunes of nation states. This research draws on techniques from molecular systematics, population genetics, epidemiology and ecology, and involves two related themes: 1) the creation of large comparative databases for quantitative analysis; and 2) the development of stochastic models of cultural evolution. This work forms part of a new science of cultural evolution that holds the promise of a better understanding of human prehistory, social learning and the general laws of socio-cultural evolution.

Dr. Quentin Atkinson is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research draws on lab and field experiments, computer modeling and evolutionary theory to shed light on how human culture evolves and the importance of culture for the evolution of our species. This includes work on the evolution of language, religion, cooperation and the human expansion from Africa.

His work on the evolution of language, religion, prosociality and the human expansion from Africa has been published in Nature, Science, and regularly features in international media outlets including the BBC, New Scientist, the NY Times, the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Atkinson is also a keen environmentalist and in 2007 published an edited volume with Dr Niki Harré on how New Zealanders can tackle climate change.

For more information on Dr. Atkinson's work, please visit his website.

This event is free and open to the public.