Re: Evolution <-> Historical mediation (???)
David Dirlam (ddirlam who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Tue, 26 Aug 1997 12:42:15 -0700 (PDT)
Eduard Lagache's comments caught my attention, because I have been
working at the borders of this problem for decades. As my MCA, 1996
article indicates, an interesting methodological anomaly pushed me out of
my Ph.D. field of comparative and physiological psychology into cultural
issues. Most recently (e.g., my MCA, 1997 article) I have been
modifying dynamic models from ecology for use with analyzing data
about the frequency of use of cultural practices, like genres of
developmental research strategies.
When I arrived at LCHC three weeks ago, I came with a few insights
into the problem. Now, I have progressed to some further questions
concerning it. The insights are fairly basic: (1) frequency of use over
time and the emergence of new practices/strategies are fundamental to data
analysis in the area, (2) evolution, culture, and ontogeny operate usually
in time frames that are an order of magnitude different from each other
(Herbert SImon gives the rule of thumb that an order of magnitude in such
contexts in 1,000 times), and (3) although the parameters and dynamics of
change within each arena may be very similar (e.g. the level of acceptance
of a practice operates analogously to the carrying capacity of an
organism), the causes may be very different (natural selection, cultural
transmission, and automatization operate in distinct ways). This bears on
Edouard's query (whether evolution needs to be rewritten in cultural
terms) by implying that because the time scales are so different, the
influences may often not be very noticeable (we are not likely to add
flippers to our evolutionary strategies anytime soon). But people
interested in such effects should attend to the causal mechanisms
involved: i.e., they need to look where there is currently the
greatest genetic variety because natural selection operates quickest
when it has a varied gene pool to operate on.
The questions that have arisen since I arrived at LCHC concern the
transmission process. We can look for the frequency of usage of practices
within individuals or within groups over time, but how do we model the
effects of one system of practices on another? Note, that the affecting
system can be either an evolutionary system, an ontogenetic system, or a
cultural-historical system. Another frame for this question is do systems
affect each other by changing each others parameters (growth rate,
carrying capacity, competitive success rate), by introducing new
practices into a system, or some other mechanism?
Of course, these questions might be rephrased in Edouard's
context as ecumenical questions: is there communication between Catholics
and Episcopalians, existentialists and pragmatists, Macophiles and users
of vanilla IBM-Windows platforms?