Abstract
Writers from a variety of disciplines recognize that culture is composed of or depends on behavior, but is also somehow more than an unorganized collection of behavioral events. Biologist Bonner (1980) defined culture as “behavior transmitted from one individual to another by teaching and learning” (p. 17). Cultural anthropologist Harris (1964) stated, “human behavior constitutes the cultural field of inquiry” (p. 20). However, human responses “are definitely not cultural things,” (Harris, p. 22) but rather are the empirical events to which scientific operations must be applied to arrive at cultural classifications. Behavior analyst Baum (2000) stated, “culture consists of behavior andchrw(133) cultural change constitutes an evolutionary process” (p. 182).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Andronis, P. (1983). Symbolic aggression by pigeons: Contingency adduction. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago.
Baum, W. M. (2000). Being concrete about culture and cultural evolution. In N. Thompson & F. Tonneau (Eds.), Perspectives in Ethology (Vol 13, pp. 181–212 ). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
Blackmore, S. (1999). The meme machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bonner, J. T. (1980). The evolution of culture in animals. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Catania, A. C. (1995). Selection in behavior and biology. In J. T. Todd & E. K. Morris (Eds). Modern perspectives on B. F. Skinner and contemporary behaviorism (pp. 185–194 ). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Curio, E. V. & Vieth, W. (1978). Cultural transmission of enemy recognition: One function of mobbing. Science, 202, 899–901.
Dawkins, R. (1976) . The selfish gene. Oxford University Press
Donahoe, J. W. (1984). Commentary: Skinner-The Darwin of ontogeny? The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7, 287–288
Donahoe, J. W., & Palmer D. C. (1994). Learning and complex behavior. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Epstein, R. (1985). The spontaneous interconnection of three repertoires. The Psychological Record 1985 35, 131–141
Galef, B. G., Jr. (1988). Imitation in animals: History, definition, and interpretation of data from the psychological laboratory. In T. R. Zentall & B. G. Galef, Jr. (Eds.) Social learning: Psychological and biological perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Glenn, S. S. (1986). Behavior: A gene for the social sciences. Poster presented at American Psychological Association convention. Washington, D. C.
Glenn, S. S. (1988). Contingencies and metacontingencies: Toward a synthesis of behavior analysis and cultural materialism. The Behavior Analyst, 11, 161–179.
Glenn, S. S. & Malagodi, E. F. (1991). Process and content in behavioral and cultural phenomena. Behavior and Social Issues1 (2), 1–14.
Glenn, S. S. (1991). Contingencies and metacontingencies: Relations among behavioral, cultural, and biological evolution, in P.A. Lamal (Ed). Behavioral analysis of societies and cultural practices. New York: Hemisphere Press (pp. 39–73 ).
Glenn, S. S., Ellis, J., & Greenspoon, J. (1992). On the revolutionary nature of the operant as a unit of behavioral selection. American Psychologist 47, 1329–1336.
Hake, D. F., & Vukelich, R. (1973). Analysis of the control exerted by a complex cooperation procedure. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 19, 3–16.
Harris, M. (1964). The nature of cultural things. New York: Random House.
Harris, M. (1989). Our kind. New York: Harper & Row.
Hineline, P. N. (1992). A self-interpretive behavior analysis. American Psychologist 47 1274–1286
Hull, D. L. (1980). Individuality and selection. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11, 311 – 332
Hull, D. L., Longman, R. E., & Glenn, S. S. (2001). A general account of selection: Biology, immunology and behavior. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 51 1528.
Kawai, M. (1965). Newly acquired pre-cultural behavior of the natural troop of Japanese monkeys on Koshima Islet. Primates, 67, 1–30.
Kawamura, S. (1959). The process of sub-culture propagation among Japanese macaques. Primates, 2, 43–60.
Lee, V. L. (1992). Transdermal interpretation of the subject matter of behavior analysis. American Psychologist, 47,1337–43.
Mithaug, D. E. (1969). The development of cooperation in alternative task situations. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,8,441–454.
Maynard Smith, J. (1994). The major transitions in evolution. In G. Cowan, D. Pines, & D. Meltzer (Eds). Complexity: metaphors, models, and reality. SFI Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Proc. Vol. XIX, Addison-Wesley.
Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1977). Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science, 198, 75–78.
Meltzoff, A. N. (1988). The human infant as Homo Imitans. In T. R. Zentall & B. G. Galef, Jr. (Eds.) Social learning: Psychological and biological perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Skinner, B. F. (1981). Selection by consequences. Science, 213, 501–504.
Skinner, B. F. (1984). The evolution of behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 41, 217–221.
Skinner, B. E (1988). BFS commentary in canonical papers of B. F. Skinner: Selection by consequences. In A. C. Catania & S. Hamad (Eds.), The selection of behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
White, R. (1982). Rethinking the middle/upper paleolithic transition. Current Anthropology, 23, 169–192.
Wilson, D. S. (1980). The natural selection of populations and communities. Menlo Park, CA: Benjam in Cummings.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Glenn, S.S. (2003). Operant Contingencies and the Origin of Cultures. In: Lattal, K.A., Chase, P.N. (eds) Behavior Theory and Philosophy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4590-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4590-0_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-3405-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-4590-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive