Cultural and linguistic diversity: evolutionary approaches
Evolutionary approaches to cultural change are increasingly influential, and many scientists believe that a ‘grand synthesis’ is now in sight (e.g. Mesoudi, Whiten & Laland 2006). At the ‘microevolutionary’ scale, modern theories of cultural evolution recognize that cultural traditions and innovations are socially transmitted person-to-person between and within generations (respectively, by vertical or oblique and by horizontal transmission routes; Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman 1981),...
Haunted English explores the role of language in colonization and decolonization by examining how Anglo-Celtic modernists W. B. Yeats, Hugh MacDiarmid, and Marianne Moore "de-Anglicize" their literary vernaculars. Laura O'Connor demonstrates how the poets' struggles with and through the colonial tongue are discernible in their signature styles, using aspects of those styles to theorize the dynamics of linguistic imperialism -- as both a distinct process and an integral part of cultural imperialism. REUPLOAD NEEDED
In this book, Kate Distin proposes a theory of cultural evolution and shows how it can help us to understand the origin and development of human culture. Distin introduces the concept that humans share information not only in natural languages, which are spoken or signed, but also in artefactual languages like writing and musical notation, which use media that are made by humans.
British culture today is the product of a shifting combination of tradition and experimentation, national identity and regional and ethnic diversity. These distinctive tensions are expressed in a range of cultural arenas, such as art, sport, journalism, fashion, education, and race. This Companion addresses these and other major aspects of British culture, and offers a sophisticated understanding of what it means to study and think about the diverse cultural landscapes of contemporary Britain. Each contributor looks at the language through which culture is formed and expressed, the political and institutional trends that shape culture, and at the role of culture in daily life.
Artificial Mythologies: A Guide to Cultural Invention
Artificial Mythologies was first published in 1997. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Cultural critics teach us that myths are artificial. Cultural innovators use the artificial to make something new.
