THE CUMULATIVE QUALITY OF CULTURE EXPLAINS HUMAN UNIQUENESS: with Eric Priest, Celia Deane‐Drummond, Joseph Henrich, and Mary Meyers, "Introduction to Symposium on 'Just How Special Are Humans?'"; Eric Priest, "Human Uniqueness: Debates in Science and Theology"; Joseph Henrich, "How Culture Made Us Uniquely Human"; Agustín Fuentes, "Distinctively Human? Meaning‐Making and World Shaping as Core Processes of the Human Niche"; Cristine Legare, "The Cumulative Quality of Culture Explains Human Uniqueness"; David Reich, "Human Uniqueness from a Biological Point of View"; Alan Mittleman, "'The Mystery of Human Uniqueness': Common Sense, Science, and Judaism"; Jan‐Olav Henriksen, "Experiencing the World as the Evolved Image of God: Religion in the Context of Science"; Jennifer A. Herdt, "Responsible Agency: A Human Distinctive?"; Celia Deane‐Drummond, "Tracing Distinctive Human Moral Emotions? The Contribution of a Theology of Gratitude"; and John Behr, "Nature Makes an Ascent from the Lower to the Higher: Gregory of Nyssa on Human Distinctiveness."

What explains the unique features of human culture? Culture is not uniquely human, but human culture is uniquely cumulative. Cumulative culture is a product of our collective intelligence and is supported by cognitive processes and learning strategies that enable people to acquire, transform, and tr...

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Published in:Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science Vol. 58; no. 2; pp. 443 - 454
Main Author: Legare, Cristine
Format: Article
Published: Open Library of Humanities Jun2023
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: THE CUMULATIVE QUALITY OF CULTURE EXPLAINS HUMAN UNIQUENESS: with Eric Priest, Celia Deane‐Drummond, Joseph Henrich, and Mary Meyers, "Introduction to Symposium on 'Just How Special Are Humans?'"; Eric Priest, "Human Uniqueness: Debates in Science and Theology"; Joseph Henrich, "How Culture Made Us Uniquely Human"; Agustín Fuentes, "Distinctively Human? Meaning‐Making and World Shaping as Core Processes of the Human Niche"; Cristine Legare, "The Cumulative Quality of Culture Explains Human Uniqueness"; David Reich, "Human Uniqueness from a Biological Point of View"; Alan Mittleman, "'The Mystery of Human Uniqueness': Common Sense, Science, and Judaism"; Jan‐Olav Henriksen, "Experiencing the World as the Evolved Image of God: Religion in the Context of Science"; Jennifer A. Herdt, "Responsible Agency: A Human Distinctive?"; Celia Deane‐Drummond, "Tracing Distinctive Human Moral Emotions? The Contribution of a Theology of Gratitude"; and John Behr, "Nature Makes an Ascent from the Lower to the Higher: Gregory of Nyssa on Human Distinctiveness."
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        au: Legare, Cristine
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        Gregory, of Nyssa, Saint, ca. 335-ca. 394
        Image of God
        Common sense
        Emotions
        Swarm intelligence
        Cultural pluralism
      sug:
        subj:
          Gregory, of Nyssa, Saint, ca. 335-ca. 394
          Image of God
          Common sense
          Emotions
          Swarm intelligence
          Cultural pluralism
      keyword:
        child development
        cognitive evolution
        cognitive science
        cultural evolution
        cumulative culture
        innovation
      ab: What explains the unique features of human culture? Culture is not uniquely human, but human culture is uniquely cumulative. Cumulative culture is a product of our collective intelligence and is supported by cognitive processes and learning strategies that enable people to acquire, transform, and transmit information and technologies within and across generations. Technological and social innovations are currently driving unprecedented changes in cultural complexity and diversity. Innovation is a cognitively and socially complex, multistep process that typically requires (cumulative) cultural learning to achieve. I argue that the technological solutions that characterize twenty‐first‐century innovation can only be explained by understanding both the capacity to learn from and build upon the insights of others and the transmission systems that store the knowledge and technologies of previous generations. Human uniqueness is a product of cumulative cultural learning, transmission, and innovation.
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    language: English
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