PSYC14H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Homo Erectus, High Standard Manufacturing Company, Counterintuitive
Document Summary
Biological genes = cultural memes - both must: longevity: last long, fecundity: popularity if an idea is popular or if you are attractive/popular, fidelity: accuracy (in culture it is not replication of ideas but. Cultural evolution: replication of ideas epidemiology of ideas) Communicable ideas spread: can be transmitted to others (it should be socially acceptable to communicate, if afraid of social scrutiny you may not share) Emotional ideas spread: elicits a common emotion in many (everyone feels emotion, its connection) feel some validation. Minimally counterintuitive ideas spread: something unique but not outrageous. (fairly tales) Daily life involved physical challenges, disease= high rate of mortality. **generalizations describe context in which all of human evolution and history have occurred. Homo erectus- larger brains but no relevance of art, religion or language. Homo sapiens capacity to develop language, for collective learning (allowed things to shifts) Homo sapiens today are the same people; more sophisticated by developing language, civilizations (by domestication, industrial evolution)
