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The Evolution of Hominin Culture and Its Ancient Pre-hominin Foundations

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The Nature of Culture

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

Abstract

This chapter examines the nature of culture in the broad evolutionary context of animal behavior, thus delineating the ancient foundations of the series of steps that eventuated in hominin culture. Focusing then on primates , further conclusions are drawn about the direct evolutionary antecedents of hominin culture in the most recent ancestors that humans share with great apes . Hominin cultural evolution is finally examined in the context of a complex of advances in social and technological cognition and other features that include unprecedented encephalization and extended childhood . The ‘nature of culture’ is dissected through two complementary conceptual schemes: a broad pyramidal evolutionary model extended in other chapters in this volume, and a three-element comparative analysis considering in turn social learning processes, cultural contents and the spatio-temporal distribution of traditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK

    Andrew Whiten

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany

    Miriam N. Haidle

  2. Department of Early Prehistory and Quate, Institute of Pre- and Protohistory and M, Tübingen, Germany

    Nicholas J. Conard

  3. Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Human, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Michael Bolus

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Whiten, A. (2016). The Evolution of Hominin Culture and Its Ancient Pre-hominin Foundations. In: Haidle, M., Conard, N., Bolus, M. (eds) The Nature of Culture. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7426-0_4

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