Why humans have cultures

Sociocultural anthropology and evolutionary biology have reached the point at which it is possible to give a coherent and synthetic account of the origins of human cultural vanability. From a sociocultural perspective what must be explained is not just the fact of varying cultures and societies, but also the human capacity to create, maintain and alter social forms over time. From a biological perspective we have to ask, what is the selective advantage ofsuch variability? The answer lies in human sociality. Sociality consists in a package of social intellectual capacities-higher order intentionalhty, pedagogy, narrativity, creativity, speech-which made possible an increasing division of labour. But as these capacities grew, they gave rise to distinctively human (rather than Darwinian) history, that is to the forms ofsocial, political, economic and cultural causation which create ever new variations on the theme of social existence.

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