A deflationary perspective on theories of cultural evolution, in particular dual-inheritance theory, has recently been proposed by Lewens. On this ‘pop-culture’ analysis, dual-inheritance theorists apply population thinking to cultural phenomena, without claiming that cultural items evolve by natural selection. This paper argues against this pop-culture analysis of dual-inheritance theory. First, it focuses on recent dual-inheritance models of specific patterns of cultural change. These models exemplify population thinking without a commitment to natural selection of cultural items. There are grounds, however, for doubting the added explanatory value of the models in their disciplinary context—and thus grounds for engaging in other potentially explanatory projects based on dual-inheritance theory. One such project is suggested by advocates of the theory. Some of the motivational narratives that they offer can be interpreted as setting up an adaptationist project with regard to cumulative change in cultural items. We develop this interpretation here. On it, dual-inheritance theory features two interrelated selection processes, one on the level of genetically inherited learning mechanisms, another on the level of the cultural items transmitted through these mechanisms. This interpretation identifies a need for further modelling efforts, but also offers scope for enhancing the explanatory power of dual-inheritance theory.

中文翻译：

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双遗传理论中的群体思维和自然选择


勒文斯最近提出了文化进化理论，特别是双重继承理论的通货紧缩观点。在这种“流行文化”分析中，双重继承理论家将群体思维应用于文化现象，但没有声称文化项目是通过自然选择进化的。本文反对这种对双重继承理论的流行文化分析。首先，它关注最近文化变迁特定模式的双重继承模型。这些模型体现了人口思维，但没有致力于文化项目的自然选择。然而，我们有理由怀疑这些模型在其学科背景下的附加解释价值，因此也有理由参与基于双继承理论的其他潜在解释项目。该理论的倡导者提出了这样一个项目。他们提供的一些动机叙述可以被解释为针对文化项目的累积变化建立一个适应项目。我们在这里发展这种解释。在此基础上，双重继承理论具有两个相互关联的选择过程，一个是在遗传学习机制的层面上，另一个是在通过这些机制传递的文化项目的层面上。这种解释表明需要进一步的建模工作，但也为增强双继承理论的解释力提供了空间。