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Cultural innovation is not only a product of cognition but also of cultural context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2025

Yotam Ben-Oren ,
Erella Hovers ,
Oren Kolodny  and
Nicole Creanza Open the ORCID record for Nicole Creanza [Opens in a new window]
Yotam Ben-Oren*
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, Silberman Institute for Life Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel Yotam.ben-oren@mail.huji.ac.il Oren.kolodny@mail.huji.ac.il; https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PxhzC24AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao; https://sites.google.com/view/oren-kolodny-homepage
Erella Hovers
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel Hovers@mail.huji.ac.il; https://archaeology.huji.ac.il/people/erella-hovers
Oren Kolodny
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, Silberman Institute for Life Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel Yotam.ben-oren@mail.huji.ac.il Oren.kolodny@mail.huji.ac.il; https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PxhzC24AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao; https://sites.google.com/view/oren-kolodny-homepage
Nicole Creanza*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA nicole.creanza@vanderbilt.edu; http://nicolecreanza.com Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
*
*Corresponding authors.
*Corresponding authors.
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Abstract

Innovations, such as symbolic artifacts, are a product of cognitive abilities but also of cultural context. Factors that may determine the emergence and retention of an innovation include the population's pre-existing cultural repertoire, exposure to relevant ways of thinking, and the invention's utility. Thus, we suggest that the production of symbolic artifacts is not guaranteed even in cognitively advanced societies.

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Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e4
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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