Cultural Evolution Manuscripts & Publications Available for Download 

(Adobe pdf files)

Ethnic Interactions: Analysis of a Sample of Boundaries, with Lore Ruttan, Margaret Franzen, and Robert Bettinger

Five Misunderstandings About  Cultural Evolution, with Joseph Henrich and Robert Boyd. In press Human Nature.

Conformists and mavericks in the lab: The structure of frequency-dependent social learning. With Charles Efferson, Rafael Lalive, Richard McElreath and Mark Lubell. In press Evolution and Human Behavior.

Models and antimodels: The structure of pay-off dependent social learning.  With Charles Efferson, Rafael Lalive, Richard McElreath and Mark Lubell.  Submitted to Evolution and Human Behavior.

A naturalistic approach to the firm: the role of cooperation and cultural evolution. With Christian Cordes, Richard McElreath and Pontus Strimling.  In Press Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

The evolution of free enterprise values. With Robert Boyd. In Moral Markets: The Critical Role of Values in the Economy, edited by Paul Zak. Princeton University Press.  Pp. 107-141. 2008.

Learning, productivity, and noise: an experimental study of cultural transmission on the Bolivian Altiplano. With Charles Efferson, Richard McElreath, Mark Lubell, Ed Edsten, Timothy M. Waring, Brian Paciotti, and William Baum.  Evolution and Human Behavior  28: 11-17. 2007.

Influences on communication about reproduction: The cultural evolution of low fertility. With Lesley Newson, Tom Postmes, S.E.G. Lea, Paul Webley, and Richard McElreath. Evolution and Human Behavior 28: 199-210. 2007.

Cultural evolution and the shaping of cultural diversity. With Lesley Newson and Robert Boyd. pp 454-476 in Handbook of Culture Psychology, Dov Cohen and Shinobu Kitayama, editors, New York, Guilford Press.  2007.

A prolegomenon to nonlinear empiricism in the human behavioral sciences. With Charles Efferson. Philosophy and Biology 22: 1-33. 2006.

Culture and the evolution of the human social instincts. With Robert Boyd. In: Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition, and Interaction. Edited by N.J. Enfield and Stephen C. Levinson. Berg. Pp. 453-477. 2006.

Why managers need an evolutionary theory of organizations. With Dwight Collins and Russell Genet.  Strategic Organization 4(2) 201-211. 2006.

Cultural Evolutionary Theory: A Synthetic Theory for Fragmented Disciplines. With Brian Paciotti and Robert Boyd. In  Bridging Social Psychology: The Benefits of Transdisciplinary Approaches, Paul Van Lange, Editor. Pp 365-70. 2006.

Evolution on a restless planet: Were environmental variability and environmental change major drivers of human evolution? With Robert L. Bettinger and Robert Boyd.  Handbook of Evolution Vol. 2 edited by Franz M. Wuketits and Francisco J. Ayala, Pp 223-242. 2005.

Applying formal models to the laboratory study of social learning: The impact of task difficulty and environmental fluctuation. With Richard McElreath, Mark Lubell, Timothy M. Waring, William Baum, Edward Edsten, and Charles Efferson, and Brian Paciotti. Evolution and Human Behavior 26: 483-508. 2005.

Darwinian Evolutionary Ethics: Between Patriotism and Sympathy. With Robert Boyd. In Evolution and Ethics: Human Morality in Biological and Religious Perspective, Philip Clayton and Jeffrey Schloss, editors, Pp. 50-77, 2004.

Cultural Evolution in Laboratory Micro-Societies Including Traditions of Rule-Giving and Rule-Following with William M. Baum, Charles M. Efferson , and Brian M. Paciotti.  Evolution and Human Behavior 25: 305-326. 2004.

Culture, Adaptation, and Innateness, with Robert Boyd. Pp23-38 in The Innate Mind: Volume 2 Culture and Cognition, P. Carruthers, S. Stich, & S. Laurence, eds., Oxford, Oxford University Press.  2006.

Cultural Evolution of Human Cooperation, with Robert Boyd and Joe Henrich. In Dahlem Conference Report The Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation, Edited by Peter Hammerstein, Pp. 357-388. 2003  

Cultural Selection and Genetic Diversity in Humans, with Hal Whitehead and Robert Boyd. Selection 3:115-125,  2002.

Cooperation and Conflict, Large Scale Human, with Francisco Gil-White. In  Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Wiley 2007.

Shared Norms Can Lead to the Evolution of Ethnic Markers, with Richard McElreath and Robert Boyd. 2003, Current Anthropology 44: 122–130.   Electronic Enhancements.

Group Beneficial Norms Can Spread Rapidly In a Structured Population, with Robert Boyd. 2002,  Journal of Theoretical Biology 215: 287–296. 

Solving the Puzzle of Human Cooperation, with Robert Boyd. In Evolution and Culture, edited by S. Levinson and P. Jaisson. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, pp. 105-132. 2005.

The Evolution of Altruistic Punishment, with Robert Boyd, Herbert Gintis and Samuel Bowles. 2003. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 100: 3531–3535.

An Evolutionary Theory of Commons Management, with Robert Boyd and Brian Paciotti. 2002. In Elinor Ostrom, Thomas Dietz, Nives Dolsak, Paul C. Stern, Susan Stonich, and Elke U. Weber (eds.) The Drama of the Commons. National Academy Press. Pp. 403-442.

Meme Theory Oversimplifies Cultural Change. With Robert Boyd. Scientific American, October 2002, Pp. 54-55.

Built For Speed, Not for Comfort: Darwinian Theory and Human Culture, with Robert Boyd. 2001. In History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 23: 423-463.

The Evolution of Subjective Commitment to Groups: A Tribal Instincts Hypothesis, with Robert Boyd. 2001. In Randolph M. Nesse (ed.) The Evolution of Commitment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Pp. 186-220.

Was Agriculture Impossible During the Pleistocene But Mandatory During the Holocene? A Climate Change Hypothesis, with Robert Boyd and Robert L. Bettinger. 2001.  American Antiquity 66: 387-411.

Culture Is Part of Human Biology: Why the Superorganic Concept Serves the Human Sciences Badly, with Robert Boyd. In Science Studies: Probing the Dynamics of Scientific Knowledge, edited by S. Maasen and M. Winterhager, transcript Verlag, 2001. Also, to be published in Probing Human Origins, edited by Morris Goodman and Anne Simon Moffat, The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Cambridge, MA.  

Institutional Evolution in the Holocene: The Rise of Complex Societies, with Robert Boyd. In The Origin of Human Social Institutions, pp. 197-204, 2001, W.G. Runciman, editor. Proceedings of the British Academy 110.

Norms and Bounded Rationality, with Robert Boyd. In: The Adaptive Tool Box, G. Gigerenzer and R. Selten, eds. pp 281–296, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2001.

Memes: Universal Acid or Better Mouse Trap, with Robert Boyd.  In: Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science. R. Aunger ed. pp.143–162, Oxford University Press, Oxford. 2000. 

The Pleistocene and the Origins of Human Culture: Built for Speed,   with Robert Boyd. In Perspectives in Ethology, Vol. 13:1-45, 2000, Francois Tonneau and Nicholas Thompson, editors.

Climate, Culture, and the Evolution of Cognition, with Robert Boyd. In C.M. Heyes and L. Huber, Editors, The Evolution of Cognition, MIT Press, 2000.

Evolution: The Darwinian Theory of Social Change: An Homage to Donald T. Campbell, with Robert Boyd.  In: Paradigms of Social Change, pp. 257-282, 2000, Waltrud Schelkle, Wolf-Hagen Krauth, Martin Kohli, and Georg Elwer (eds.), Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.

Constraints on Social Transmission of Food Selection by Roof Rats, Rattus rattus, With Lien-Siang Chou and Rex E. Marsh.  Acta Zoologica Taiwanica, 2000, 11: 95-109.

Complex Societies: The Evolutionary Origins of a Crude Superorganism, with Robert Boyd.  Human Nature, 1999, 10: 253-289.

 The Evolution of Human Ultra-sociality, with Robert Boyd.  I.  Eibl-Eibesfeldt and F. K. Salter (eds.), Indoctrinability, Ideology and Warfare. New York: Berghahn Books. Pp. 71-96, 1998.

Homage to Malthus, Ricardo, and Boserup: Toward a General Theory of Population, Economic Growth, Environmental Deterioration, Wealth and Poverty. With Robert Boyd. Human Ecology Review 4: 85-90, 1998.

Are Cultural Phylogenies Possible? With R. Boyd, M. Borgerhoff Mulder and W.H. Durham. In: P. Weingart, P.J. Richerson, S.D.Mitchell, and S. Maasen (eds.), Human by Nature, Between Biology and the Social Sciences,  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ, 1997. Pp. 355–386.

Why Culture is Common but Cultural Evolution is Rare, with Robert Boyd. Proceedings of the British Academy, 88: 73–93, 1996.  

Style, Function, and Cultural Evolutionary Processes. With Robert Bettinger and Robert Boyd. In: Darwinian Archaeologies, Herbert D.G. Maschner (ed.), New York, Plenum, 1996, pp. 133-164.

Can Group-functional Behaviors Evolve by Cultural Group Selection?  An Empirical Test, with Joseph Soltis and Robert Boyd. Current Anthropology, 63: 473–494, 1995.

Why Does Culture Increase Human Adaptability? With Robert  Boyd. Ethology and Sociobiology. 16: 125–143, 1995.

How Microevolutionary Processes Give Rise to History. With Robert Boyd. In History and Evolution, M.H. and D.V. Nitecki (eds.), SUNY Press, Albany, 1992, pp. 178-209.

Rationality, Imitation, and Tradition. With Robert Boyd. In Nonlinear Dynamics and Evolutionary Economics, R. Day and P. Chen (eds.), Oxford University Press, New York, 1993, pp. 131-149.

Cultural Inheritance and Evolutionary Ecology. With Robert Boyd. In Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior, E.A. Smith and B. Winterhalder (eds.), Aldine de Gruyter, New York, 1992, pp. 61-92.

The Role of Evolved Predispositions in Cultural Evolution: Or, Human Sociobiology Meets Pascal's Wager. Ethology and Sociobiology 10: 195-219, 1989.

The Evolution of Ethnic Markers. With Robert Boyd. Cultural Anthropology 2: 65-79. 1987

If you would like a hard copy, please send me an email.
Download Adobe Acrobat pdf Reader free.