Patricia Greenfield

Distinguished Professor, UCLA Department of Psychology
Associate, Harvard Department of Human Evolutionary Biology

A Theoretical and Empirical Approach to Cultural Evolution: Intergenerational Transmission, Cognition, and Creativity

For the theoretical approach, I will present my multilevel theory of ecological change, cultural evolution, and human development. For the empirical evidence, I will report findings from longitudinal study of a Zinacantec Maya community in Chiapas, Mexico over a span of 43 years. This research has explored the intergenerational transmission of weaving, cognitive development, and creativity in three generations of mothers and children. From Generation 1 to Generation 2, the main ecological change was the transition from subsistence agriculture to money and commerce. From Generation 2 to Generation 3, the main ecological change was from informal education at home to formal education at school. In the domain of intergenerational transmission, the first shift created more independent weaving learners; the second shift created more school-like transmission of weaving technique. Both ecological shifts moved cognition towards greater abstraction and creativity towards greater innovation. These ecological shifts also produced cultural losses: Fewer girls learning to weave on a backstrap loom, less detail-oriented visual representation, and the declining importance of traditional, community-wide woven patterns. The processes of cultural evolution identified in this Maya community are similar to cultural shifts going on in many communities around the world, communities have transitioned from subsistence ecologies to commercial, urbanized, and technologically more sophisticated environments.