Abstract

This chapter argues that cultural evolution is scaffolded not just on material culture and social organization but also on innate cognitive abilities. In view of the diversity and rich- ness of cultural productions, one might be tempted to overlook the role of evolved cogni- tive abilities, whose (biological) functions are restricted to domains of the environment in which they have evolved. How, for instance, could our evolved abilities for cognizing magnitudes be used for dealing with contemporary mathematical knowledge? I argue that even in these cases where beliefs and behavior go far beyond the range of the evolved function of cognitive abilities, these abilities might nonetheless act as scaffolds. In order to make my point, I rephrase the work of cultural epidemiologists as showing that culture evolves via multiple scaffolds, made of both transmitted artifacts and public representa- tions, and core cognition — a set of nonperceptual innate cognitive abilities. I develop this point by considering the case of conceptual change in science and mathematics.