Standing on the shoulders of giants: cumulative culture and social learning strategies

• 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm on Friday 02 November 2012
• The Manchester Museum, Manchester

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Dr Rachel Kendal

Public lecture by Dr Rachel Kendal as part of the Manchester Science Festival

Event details

Dr Rachel Kendal is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Durham and has recently completed a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship.

Building upon the knowledge of others over many generations, currently referred to as cumulative cultural evolution, is arguably unique to humans and widely thought to be responsible for our success in colonising virtually every terrestrial habitat on the planet, and solving ecological, social and technological challenges.  In contrast, social learning - learning from others - underlies the wide-spread occurrence of traditions or culture in all animals.  Dr Rachel Kendal has investigated social learning strategies in young children, monkeys, chimpanzees and fish and discusses how the unique ways in which humans learn from one another may have been critical for our capacity for cumulative culture.

This event is part of the Manchester Science Festival.