Cultural Adaptations After Progressionism

Abstract

How should behavioral scientists interpret apparently progressive stages of cultural history? Adaptive progress in biology is thought to only occur locally, relative to local conditions. Just as evolutionary theory offers physical anthropologists an appreciation of global human diversity through local adaptation, so the metaphor of adaptation offers behavioral scientists an appreciation of cultural diversity through analogous mechanisms. Analyses reported here test for cultural adaptation in both biotic and abiotic environments. Testing cultural adaptation to the human-made environment, the culture's pre-existing technical complexity is shown to be a predictive factor. Then testing cultural adaptation to the physical environment, this article corroborates Divale's (1999) finding that counting systems are adaptations to unstable environments, and expands the model to include other environmental indices and cultural traits. Interpreting divergent and convergent behaviors as due to differences and similarities of local environments represents an enlightened, post-progressionist research program for the investigation of cultural adaptations.