New work in cultural and social evolution

We are a culture-soaked species; the accumulated information, ideas and knowledge we inherit from those who have come before us are key to understanding who we are and how we came to be. Getting an empirical grip on past and present human cultures and the evolutionary and social dynamics within human groups is, however, difficult. Degraded and patchy evidence, cultural biases and inferential limitations pose significant methodological challenges. This workshop brings together a range of speakers from different backgrounds working on cultural and social evolution, and aims to unpack and address some of these challenges. Designed to encourage collaborations between philosophy, biology, archaeology and biological anthropology, the workshop will showcase current, innovative cross-disciplinary work in Australasia, with a focus on early and middle career researchers. We will address questions such as:

• What is the appropriate role of evolutionary models in understanding cultural change?

• How should we approach questions about human nature, human evolution and general explanations of human history?

• What is the relationship between biological change and cultural change?

• What are the explanatory virtues of high-level explanation as opposed to fine-grained descriptions, and vice versa?

• Do models offer us a unique line of evidence to the past?

• What are the ethical implications of archaeological and anthropological analysis?