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Testing the cultural group selection hypothesis in Northern Ghana and Oaxaca

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Cristina Acedo-Carmona  and
Antoni Gomila
Cristina Acedo-Carmona
Affiliation:
Human Evolution and Cognition, University of the Balearic Islands, Campus Carretera Valldemossa, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain. cacedo33@hotmail.comtoni.gomila@uib.catwww.evocog.organtonigomila.wordpress.com
Antoni Gomila
Affiliation:
Human Evolution and Cognition, University of the Balearic Islands, Campus Carretera Valldemossa, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain. cacedo33@hotmail.comtoni.gomila@uib.catwww.evocog.organtonigomila.wordpress.com
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Abstract

We examine the cultural group selection (CGS) hypothesis in light of our fieldwork in Northern Ghana and Oaxaca, highly multi-ethnic regions. Our evidence fails to corroborate two central predictions of the hypothesis: that the cultural group is the unit of evolution, and that cultural homogenization is to be expected as the outcome of a selective process.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e31
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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