Cultural Evolution: Social Rule Systems, Selection and Human Agency

In this paper we outline a general evolutionary theory, which we suggest can provide a useful point of departure for the description and analysis of cultural and institutional dynamics. The paper defines culture and institutions as systems of social rules, produced and reproduced by human groups, and formulates the evolutionary dynamics of such rule systems. In the context of the resurgence of evolutionary thinking in the social sciences in the last decade, we distinguish between contemporary evolutionary approaches and earlier developmental approaches. By evolutionary we mean models of the generation of variety, transmission of information and the operation of selection and other processes (migration, distorted or incorrect knowledge transmission etc.) on the distribution of information within and between populations over time. The key units of information consists of social rules, the production, reproduction and transformation of which is the focus of the theory. In this scheme macro or population-level phenomena and structures are shaped by micro-level processes and in turn are the selective environment for the micro-level processes. Historical developments are seen as the result of complex contingencies rather than representing a tendency for key variables to move towards a static or dynamic Aristotelean `natural state'. In historical developments, human agents play a major role but often not in the ways they intend or anticipate.