Current work in the field of cultural evolution aims to set itself apart from this history, focusing on the role of social learning biases in generating population-level patterns, and trying to separate notions of selection from notions of progress. However, Azita will show that these approaches can still feed into existing structures of oppression, through the downplaying of human agency, and through reliance on the construction of the 'Other' in their thinking.
She will offer reasons for taking the potential social and political consequences of contemporary cultural evolution research seriously, and suggest ways in which we can work towards a more socially and politically conscious evolutionary approach to culture.
