{"id":838,"date":"2026-09-07T19:52:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T19:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socioculturallab.com\/?post_type=reading_group&#038;p=838"},"modified":"2026-09-07T19:56:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T19:56:36","slug":"can-cultures-be-individuated-nichols-et-al-2024","status":"publish","type":"reading_group","link":"https:\/\/socioculturallab.com\/index.php\/reading-group\/can-cultures-be-individuated-nichols-et-al-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Can cultures be individuated? Nichols et al. (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This paper is a critical review of cultural evolutionary science written by eleven researchers and philosophers from within the field. The review was prompted by a survey of members of the Cultural Evolution Society, who reported that the field lacks a unified theoretical framework and often uses key concepts in ways that are difficult to define clearly or measure consistently.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Discussion Questions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>What is the difference between defining &#8220;culture&#8221; and defining where one culture ends and another begins?<\/strong><br><em>Can cultures be identified and separated in a clear, non-arbitrary way? If not, what problems does this create when researchers compare different cultures?<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The authors argue that the field&#8217;s focus on producing widely applicable theories encourages simplified theories that ignore history and treat cognition mainly as information processing.<\/strong><br><em>Is this simply how the field currently operates, or is it an unavoidable consequence of studying human behaviour at the population level?<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Population-level models often pay little attention to individual agency and choice.<\/strong><br><em>Is this a useful simplification that helps explain broad patterns, or does it give an inaccurate picture of how people actually think and act?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This paper is a critical review of cultural evolutionary science written by eleven researchers and philosophers from within the field. The review was prompted by a survey of members of the Cultural Evolution Society, who reported that the field lacks a unified theoretical framework and often uses key concepts in ways that are difficult to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","reading_block":[32],"class_list":["post-838","reading_group","type-reading_group","status-publish","hentry","reading_block-two-ontologies-of-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socioculturallab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading_group\/838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socioculturallab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading_group"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socioculturallab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reading_group"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socioculturallab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"reading_block","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socioculturallab.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading_block?post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}