Why a new society? Our capacity for culture stems from our ability to receive, process, integrate, and transmit information across generations. The study of human culture and cultural change has made great strides during the last few decades in fields such as anthropology, computer science, evolutionary biology, neurobiology, psychology, and sociology. Yet, the study of cultural change as an evolutionary process, similar to genetic evolution but with its own inheritance mechanisms, is only now becoming a central area of scientific inquiry that spans these disciplines and holds much potential for academic integration. Outside the Ivory Tower, all public policies attempt to accomplish cultural change in a practical sense to reach their various objectives, yet they rarely draw upon an explicit scientific theory of cultural change. A new society is needed to catalyze the study of cultural change from a modern evolutionary perspective, both inside and outside the Ivory Tower. A 2015 Evolution Institute workshop, “Advancing the Study of Cultural Evolution: Academic Integration and Policy Applications,” laid the groundwork for the formation of this society. The workshop was organized by Michele Gelfand, a cultural psychologist at the University of Maryland, and EI President David Sloan Wilson. The participants represented a melting pot of disciplines that need to become integrated to create a science of cultural change informed by evolutionary theory. They strongly endorsed the need for a society to accomplish the objectives identified during the workshop. What will the CES do? We envision an active society that does much more than publish a journal and host an annual meeting. One of our first items of business was to collectively identify “Grand Challenges” in the study of cultural evolution; these help define the agenda of the society. We have just elected the first Executive Committee and are working toward the creation of basic scientific research programs and practical initiatives to tackle the Grand Challenges. We expect scientific research and real-world solutions to go together through the creation of field sites for the study of cultural evolution, similar to biological field sites. The Executive Committee We are delighted to have a large and diverse leadership team for the Cultural Evolution Society. The structure of this Executive Committee reflects our dedication to diversity as critical to serving the mission of this society—with the standard roles for president, secretary, and treasurer supported with eight additional members-at-large who represent diverse research fields and geographic regions where our members are active. A male and female student representative are also onboard. The inaugural elections were completed in August of 2016. The first Executive Committee took office on September 1st. Special care was taken to meet our stringent diversity mandate such that the leadership includes gender equality and geographic representation from several world regions (East-Southeast Asia; Eastern Europe-Western Asia-Central Asia; Southern Hemisphere). The Executive Committee is made up of:
- Peter J. Richerson, President
- Dan Sperber, President-Elect
- Fiona Jordan, Secretary
- Alex Mesoudi, Treasurer
- Kenichi Aoki, Member from East-Southeast Asia Region
- Sumitava Mukherjee, Member from Eastern Europe-Western Asia-Central Asia Region
- Purity Kiura, Member from Southern Hemisphere Region
- Michele Gelfand, Member from Open Region
- Russell Gray, Member from Open Region
- Monique Borgerhoff-Mulder, Member from Open Region
- Robert Boyd, Member from Open Region
- Michelle Kline, Member from Open Region
- Joshua Conrad Jackson, Male Student Representative
- Nicole Wen, Female Student Representative
Who should Join the CES? We encourage the following people to become founding members:
- Academic professionals, graduate students, and undergraduate students from any discipline relevant to cultural evolution. We especially encourage the next generation of scientists to become involved.
- Anyone (professional or nonprofessional) who is trying to accomplish positive cultural change in the real world and who would like to base their efforts on cultural evolutionary theory.
- Anyone (professional or nonprofessional) with an intellectual interest in cultural evolutionary theory who would like to get involved and support the newly emerging field.
- We are especially eager for our members to come from all cultures around the world—an appropriate ideal for a Cultural Evolution Society!
What will happen right away? When you become a founding member…
- You will be added to our mailing list to receive regular communications.
- You will be consulted, if you desire, to provide input in the creation of bylaws for the society and important decisions concerning dues, an annual conference, and a journal.
- You can help us identify grand challenges for the study of cultural evolution.
- You can get involved in the projects that we create to tackle the grand challenges.
We look forward to starting the CES with a diverse membership and to offer both intellectual stimulation and practical knowledge for improving the quality of life. Please help us recruit founding members by bringing our invitation to the attention of your friends and associates! We aim to be inclusive and diverse.