The adaptive significance of cultural behavior

In this article, I argue that human social behavior is a product of the coevolution of human biology and culture. While critical of attempts by anthropologists to explain cultural practices as if they were independent of the ability of individual human beings to survive and reproduce, I am also leery of attempts by biologists to explain the consistencies between neo-Darwinian theory and cultural behavior as the result of natural selection for that behavior. Instead, I propose that both biological and cultural attributes of human beings result to a large degree from the selective retention of traits that enhance the inclusive fitnesses of individuals in their environments. Aspects of human biology and culture may be adaptive in the same sense despite differences between the mechanisms of selection and regardless of their relative importance in the evolution of a trait. The old idea that organic and cultural evolution are complementary can thus be used to provide new explanations for why people do what they do .Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44491/1/10745_2005_Article_BF01531215.pd

D-PLACE dataset derived from Murdock et al. 1999 'Ethnographic Atlas'

<p>Cite the source of the dataset as:</p> <blockquote> <p>Murdock, G. P., R. Textor, H. Barry, III, D. R. White, J. P. Gray, and W. T. Divale. 1999. Ethnographic Atlas. World Cultures 10:24-136 (codebook)</p> </blockquote&gt

Bias in Terms of Culture and a Method for Reducing It: An Eight-Country "Explanations of Unemployment Scale" Study

Several sources of bias can plague research data and individual assessment. When cultural groups are considered, across or even within countries, it is essential that the constructs assessed and evaluated are as free as possible from any source of bias and specifically from bias caused due to culturally specific characteristics. Employing the Explanations of Unemployment Scale (revised form) for a sample of 1,894 employed and unemployed adults across eight countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Spain, Romania, Poland, Greece, and Brazil), we applied a method based on individual differences multidimensional scaling and principal component analysis to detect item bias in terms of culture and try to eliminate this bias variance from the overall item variance so as to (a) avoid jeopardizing validity levels and (b) arrive at clearer and more meaningful dimensions after adjusting the raw scores by removing the bias part. The results supported our statistical-psychometric intervention as the structure computed for the unadjusted data was enhanced and clarified when the data were adjusted for bias in terms of culture. Finally, implications for individual assessment procedures are discussed, and a method for evaluating the relative impact of bias in terms of culture on the raw assessment scores is also presented. © The Author(s) 2013