Sperber Dan, Hirschfeld Lawrence A
Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS, EHESS, and ENS, Paris, France.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2004 Jan;8(1):40-6. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2003.11.002.
The existence and diversity of human cultures are made possible by our species-specific cognitive capacities. But how? Do cultures emerge and diverge as a result of the deployment, over generations and in different populations, of general abilities to learn, imitate and communicate? What role if any do domain-specific evolved cognitive abilities play in the emergence and evolution of cultures? These questions have been approached from different vantage points in different disciplines. Here we present a view that is currently developing out of the converging work of developmental psychologists, evolutionary psychologists and cognitive anthropologists.
人类文化的存在与多样性是由我们物种特有的认知能力所促成的。但这是如何实现的呢?文化的出现与分化是由于在几代人以及不同人群中运用了学习、模仿和交流的一般能力吗?特定领域进化而来的认知能力在文化的出现和演变中是否发挥了作用(若有作用,发挥了何种作用)?不同学科从不同的有利视角探讨了这些问题。在此,我们呈现一种目前正从发展心理学家、进化心理学家和认知人类学家的汇聚研究中逐渐形成的观点。