The Cultural Animal

The Cultural Animal PDF Author: Roy F. Baumeister
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199727392
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Get Book

Book Description
This book provides a coherent explanation of human nature, which is to say how people think, act, and feel, what they want, and how they interact with each other. The central idea is that the human psyche was designed by evolution to `nable people to create and sustain culture.

The Cultural Animal

The Cultural Animal PDF Author: Roy F. Baumeister
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199727392
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Get Book

Book Description
This book provides a coherent explanation of human nature, which is to say how people think, act, and feel, what they want, and how they interact with each other. The central idea is that the human psyche was designed by evolution to `nable people to create and sustain culture.

Becoming Wild

Becoming Wild PDF Author: Carl Safina
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 1250173345
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book

Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020 "In this superbly articulate cri de coeur, Safina gives us a new way of looking at the natural world that is radically different."—The Washington Post New York Times bestselling author Carl Safina brings readers close to three non-human cultures—what they do, why they do it, and how life is for them. A New York Times Notable Books of 2020 Some believe that culture is strictly a human phenomenon. But this book reveals cultures of other-than-human beings in some of Earth’s remaining wild places. It shows how if you’re a sperm whale, a scarlet macaw, or a chimpanzee, you too come to understand yourself as an individual within a particular community that does things in specific ways, that has traditions. Alongside genes, culture is a second form of inheritance, passed through generations as pools of learned knowledge. As situations change, social learning—culture—allows behaviors to adjust much faster than genes can adapt. Becoming Wild brings readers into intimate proximity with various nonhuman individuals in their free-living communities. It presents a revelatory account of how animals function beyond our usual view. Safina shows that for non-humans and humans alike, culture comprises the answers to the question, “How do we live here?” It unites individuals within a group identity. But cultural groups often seek to avoid, or even be hostile toward, other factions. By showing that this is true across species, Safina illuminates why human cultural tensions remain maddeningly intractable despite the arbitrariness of many of our differences. Becoming Wild takes readers behind the curtain of life on Earth, to witness from a new vantage point the most world-saving of perceptions: how we are all connected.

Our Children and Other Animals

Our Children and Other Animals PDF Author: Matthew Cole
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317084721
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Get Book

Book Description
Focusing on the socialization of the human use of other animals as resources in contemporary Western society, this book explores the cultural reproduction of human-nonhuman animal relations in childhood. With close attention to the dominant practices through which children encounter animals and mainstream representations of animals in children's culture - whether in terms of the selective exposure of children to animals as pets or as food in the home or in school, or the representation of animals in mass media and social media - Our Children and Other Animals reveals the interconnectedness of studies of childhood, culture and human-animal relations. In doing so it establishes the importance of human-animal relations in sociology, by describing the sociological importance of animals in children's lives and children in animals’ lives. Presenting a new typology of the various kinds of human-animal relationship, this conceptually innovative book constitutes a clear demonstration of the relevance of sociology to the interdisciplinary field of human-animal relations and will appeal to readers across the social sciences with interests in sociology, childhood studies, cultural and media studies and human-animal interaction.

Cultural Transmission and Evolution (MPB-16), Volume 16

Cultural Transmission and Evolution (MPB-16), Volume 16 PDF Author: L L Cavalli-sforza
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691209359
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406

Get Book

Book Description
A number of scholars have found that concepts such as mutation, selection, and random drift, which emerged from the theory of biological evolution, may also explain evolutionary phenomena in other disciplines as well. Drawing on these concepts, Professors Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman classify and systematize the various modes of transmitting "culture" and explore their consequences for cultural evolution. In the process, they develop a mathematical theory of the non-genetic transmission of cultural traits that provides a framework for future investigations in quantitative social and anthropological science. The authors use quantitative models that incorporate the various modes of transmission (for example, parent-child, peer-peer, and teacher-student), and evaluate data from sociology, archaeology, and epidemiology in terms of the models. They show that the various modes of transmission in conjunction with cultural and natural selection produce various rates of cultural evolution and various degrees of diversity within and between groups. The same framework can be used for explaining phenomena as apparently unrelated as linguistics, epidemics, social values and customs, and diffusion of innovations. The authors conclude that cultural transmission is an essential factor in the study of cultural change.

The Evolution of Culture in Animals

The Evolution of Culture in Animals PDF Author: John Tyler Bonner
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691023735
Category : Animal behavior
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Get Book

Book Description
Animals do have culture, maintains this delightfully illustrated and provocative book, which cites a number of fascinating instances of animal communication and learning. John Bonner traces the origins of culture back to the early biological evolution of animals and provides examples of five categories of behavior leading to nonhuman culture: physical dexterity, relations with other species, auditory communication within a species, geographic locations, and inventions or innovations. Defining culture as the transmission of information by behavioral rather than genetical means, he demonstrates the continuum between the traits we find in animals and those we often consider uniquely human.

The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins

The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins PDF Author: Hal Whitehead
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022632592X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 442

Get Book

Book Description
Drawing on their own research as well as scientific literature including evolutionary biology, animal behavior, ecology, anthropology, psychology and neuroscience, two cetacean biologists submerge themselves in the unique environment in which whales and dolphins live. --Publisher's description.

Animals and Their People

Animals and Their People PDF Author: Anna Barcz
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900438622X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Get Book

Book Description
In Animals and Their People, editors Anna Barcz and Dorota Łagodzka present a collection of texts providing a zoocentric insight into philosophical, artistic, and literary issues in Anglo-American and Central-Eastern European thought.

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men PDF Author: Nandita Batra
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book

Book Description
Of Mice and Men: Animals in Human Culture is a book-length collection of essays that examines human views of non-human animals. The essays are written by scholars from Australia, East Asia, Europe and the Americas, who represent a wide range of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Addressing topics such as animal rights, ecology, anthropocentrism, feminism, animal domestication, dietary restrictions, and cultural imperialism, the book considers local and global issues as well as ancient and contemporary discourses, and it will appeal to readers with both general and specialized interests in the role played by animals in human cultures.

Our Children and Other Animals

Our Children and Other Animals PDF Author: Matthew Cole
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131708473X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Get Book

Book Description
Focusing on the socialization of the human use of other animals as resources in contemporary Western society, this book explores the cultural reproduction of human-nonhuman animal relations in childhood. With close attention to the dominant practices through which children encounter animals and mainstream representations of animals in children's culture - whether in terms of the selective exposure of children to animals as pets or as food in the home or in school, or the representation of animals in mass media and social media - Our Children and Other Animals reveals the interconnectedness of studies of childhood, culture and human-animal relations. In doing so it establishes the importance of human-animal relations in sociology, by describing the sociological importance of animals in children's lives and children in animals’ lives. Presenting a new typology of the various kinds of human-animal relationship, this conceptually innovative book constitutes a clear demonstration of the relevance of sociology to the interdisciplinary field of human-animal relations and will appeal to readers across the social sciences with interests in sociology, childhood studies, cultural and media studies and human-animal interaction.

Animals and Modern Cultures

Animals and Modern Cultures PDF Author: Adrian Franklin
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761956235
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book

Book Description
The dramatic transformation of relationships between humans and animals in the 20th century are investigated in this fascinating and accessible book. At the beginning of this century these relationships were dominated by human needs and interests, modernization was a project which was attached to the goal of progress and animals were merely resources to be used on the path towards human fulfilment. As the century comes to an end these relationships are increasingly being subjected to criticism. We are now urged to be more sensitive and compassionate to animal needs and interests. This book focuses on social change and animals, it is concerned with how humans relate to animals and how this has changed and why. Moreover, it highlights