Niche Construction and the Study of Culture Change in Anthropology: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract | Many North American anthropologists remain deeply suspicious of attempts to theorize the evolution of culture, given the legacy in our discipline of nineteenth-century stagist theories of cultural evolution that were shaped by scientific racism. In the late twentieth-century, some theoris...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Schultz, Emily A.; St. Cloud State University, USA.
Formato: Artículo publishedVersion
Lenguaje:Español
Publicado: Centro de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias en Ciencias y Humanidades 2015
Acceso en línea:http://www.revistas.unam.mx/index.php/inter/article/view/47629
http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=mx/mx-005&d=article47629oai
Aporte de:
Red de Bibliotecas Virtuales de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO) de Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales
id I16-R122-article47629oai
record_format dspace
institution Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales
institution_str I-16
repository_str R-122
collection Red de Bibliotecas Virtuales de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO)
language Español
description Abstract | Many North American anthropologists remain deeply suspicious of attempts to theorize the evolution of culture, given the legacy in our discipline of nineteenth-century stagist theories of cultural evolution that were shaped by scientific racism. In the late twentieth-century, some theorists tried to escape this legacy by using formal models drawn from neo-Darwinian population biology to reconceptualize cultural evolutionary processes, but these more recent approaches have been found unsatisfactory for reasons of their own. For example, gene-culture coevolution and the dual inheritance theory have limited appeal to many contemporary cultural anthropologists because these theories rely on definitions of culture, and assumptions about human individuals and social groups, that many cultural anthropologists no longer find persuasive.Niche construction, by contrast, appears more promising as a framework for connecting cultural change with biological and ecological change. Nevertheless, the innovative features of niche construction coexist uneasily alongside the same problematic features that limit the usefulness of gene-culture coevolution and dual inheritance theory in cultural anthropology. This article discusses anthropological concerns about niche construction theory, but also suggests ways in which some of them might be reduced if niche construction theory were to incorporate insights from developmental systems theory and actor network theory.
format Artículo
publishedVersion
Artículo
publishedVersion
author Schultz, Emily A.; St. Cloud State University, USA.
spellingShingle Schultz, Emily A.; St. Cloud State University, USA.
Niche Construction and the Study of Culture Change in Anthropology: Challenges and Prospects
author_facet Schultz, Emily A.; St. Cloud State University, USA.
author_sort Schultz, Emily A.; St. Cloud State University, USA.
title Niche Construction and the Study of Culture Change in Anthropology: Challenges and Prospects
title_short Niche Construction and the Study of Culture Change in Anthropology: Challenges and Prospects
title_full Niche Construction and the Study of Culture Change in Anthropology: Challenges and Prospects
title_fullStr Niche Construction and the Study of Culture Change in Anthropology: Challenges and Prospects
title_full_unstemmed Niche Construction and the Study of Culture Change in Anthropology: Challenges and Prospects
title_sort niche construction and the study of culture change in anthropology: challenges and prospects
publisher Centro de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias en Ciencias y Humanidades
publishDate 2015
url http://www.revistas.unam.mx/index.php/inter/article/view/47629
http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=mx/mx-005&d=article47629oai
work_keys_str_mv AT schultzemilyastcloudstateuniversityusa nicheconstructionandthestudyofculturechangeinanthropologychallengesandprospects
bdutipo_str Repositorios
_version_ 1764820436548321280

Ejemplares similares