NAS Sackler Colloquium on The Extension of Biology Through Culture
The Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences to be held in Irvine California on Wed-Thursday, 16 and 17th of November 2016 on: ‘The Extension of Biology Through Culture’,
Proposals for posters on social learning, traditions and culture in humans and non-human species are welcomed and encouraged! Follow the poster tab on the margin of the webpage.
All best wishes – Andy Whiten (and co-organisers Marcus Feldman, Francisco Ayala and Kevin Laland)
Invited and Confirmed Talks:
- Evolution and revolution in cetacean vocal culture: lessons from humpback whale song, Ellen Garland, University of St Andrews, UK
- Gene-culture coevolution in whales and dolphins, Hal Whitehead, Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Cultural legacies: unpacking the inter-generational transmission of information in birds, Lucy Aplin, University of Oxford, UK
- What evolves in the evolution of social learning? A social insect perspective, Elli Leadbeater, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
- Can culture re-shape the evolution of learning and how?, Arnon Lotem, Tel Aviv University
What long term field studies reveal of primate traditions, Susan Perry, University of California, Los Angeles - Can we identify a primate signature in social learning?, Dorothy Fragaszy, University of Georgia
The evolution of primate intelligence, Kevin Laland, University of St Andrews, UK - Public Lecture How animal cultures extend the scope of biology: Tradition and learning from apes to whales to bees, Andrew Whiten, University of St Andrews, UK
- Skill learning, neuroplasticity and exaptation in the evolution of human tool-making and language, Dietrich Stout, Emory University
- The role of cultural innovations, learning processes, and ecological dynamics in shaping Middle Stone
- Age cultural adaptations, Francesco d’Errico, University of Bordeaux, France
- The ontogenetic foundations of cumulative cultural transmission, Cristine Legare, University of Texas, Austin
- “I don’t know”: ignorance and question-asking as engines for cognitive development, Paul Harris, Harvard University
- Childhood as simulated annealing: How wide hypothesis exploration in an extended childhood contributes to cultural learning, Alison Gopnik, University of California, Berkeley
- How language shapes the nature of cultural inheritance, Susan Gelman, University of Michigan
- Big data, cultural macroevolution and the prospects for an evolutionary science of human history. Russell Gray, Max Planck Institute for the science of human history, Germany
- Ongoing prospects for a unified science of cultural evolution, Alex Mesoudi, University of Exeter, UK
- Concluding Remarks, Francisco J. Ayala, University of California, Irvine