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