The role of categorization as a way of fidelity preservation in cultural transmission

This paper deals with the problem of identifying cultural replicators and providing a plausible replication model for culture. Depending on what kind of information is considered to be replicated, the different evolutionary models of cultural transmission are clustered into three main groups which a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Pérez Rodríguez, José Henrique
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:188143
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/188143
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/athenea.1931
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Imitation
Cultural replication
Categorization
Fidelity
Imitación
Replicación cultural
Categorización
Fidelidad
Descripción
Sumario:This paper deals with the problem of identifying cultural replicators and providing a plausible replication model for culture. Depending on what kind of information is considered to be replicated, the different evolutionary models of cultural transmission are clustered into three main groups which are referred to as externalism, internalism and multi-substratism. From these, internalism is argued to be the most plausible position, but it fails in explaining how cultural information can be faithfully replicated in our species despite essentially depending on individual processes of intentional inference. It is concluded that no author seems to have fittingly adopted a categorization model stemmed from a usage-based perspective, and such a model would entail a feedback dynamic in category formation which could allow for an a posteriori purification of the input information flow. This way, categorization would partially equate the role of DNA in genetic transmission cycles.