Moghaddam’s ‘Catastrophic Evolution, Culture and Diversity Management Policy’ is a timely commentary on the bio-cultural implications of the ongoing process of globalization. In my commentary, his thesis is reframed within a conceptual apparatus of Universal Darwinism, a view of bio-cultural evolution that takes for granted the importance of both genetic and cultural transmission of information in Homo sapiens. Although Moghaddam’s thesis can be couched in Universal Darwinian terms, it also exposes some limitations of the current models of Universal Darwinism.
Barber, B. R. (1995). Jihad vs. McWorld. New York: Ballantine.
2.
Bartlett, F. C. (1923). Psychology and primitive culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
Blackmore, S. (1999). The meme machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4.
Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and the evolutionary process. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
5.
Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (2000). Memes: Universal acid or a better mousetrap? In R. Aunger (Ed.), Darwinizing culture (pp. 143-162). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
6.
Campbell, C. (1987). The Romantic ethic and the spirit of modern consumerism. Oxford: Blackwell.
7.
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., & Feldman, M. W. (1981). Cultural transmission and evolution: A quantitative approach. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
8.
Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9.
Dawkins, R. (1982). The extended phenotype. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10.
Dawkins, R. (1983). Universal Darwinism. In D. S. Bendall (Ed.), Evolution from molecules to men (pp. 403-425). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
11.
Dawkins, R. (1999). Foreword. In S. Blackmore, The meme machine (pp. vii-xvii). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12.
Dennett, D. C. (1995). Darwin’s dangerous idea. London: Penguin.
13.
Futuyama, D. J. (1979). Evolutionary biology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.
14.
Giddens, A. (2002). Runaway world. London: Profile.
15.
Held, D., & McGrew, A. (2002). Globalization/Anti-globalization. Cambridge: Polity.
16.
Hermans, H. J. M., & Kempen, H. J. G. (1998). Moving cultures: The perilous problems of cultural dichotomies in a globalizing society. American Psychologist, 53, 1111-1120.
17.
Hobsbawm, E. J. (1975). The age of capital 1848-1875. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
18.
Huntington, S. P. (1996). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. New York: Touchstone.
19.
Huxley, J. (1963). Evolution: The modern synthesis. London: Allen & Unwin.
20.
Jahoda, G. (1999). Images of savages. New York: Routledge.
21.
Kashima, Y. (2000). Recovering Bartlett’s social psychology of cultural dynamics. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 383-403.
22.
Kuklick, H. (1991). The savage within: The social history of British anthropology, 1885-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
23.
Laland, K. N., Odling-Smee, J., & Feldman, M. W. (2000). Niche construction, biological evolution, and cultural change. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 23, 131-175.
24.
Lewontin, R. C. (1983). Gene, organism and environment. In D. S. Bendall (Ed.), Evolution from molecules to men (pp. 273-285). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
25.
Mayr, E. (1980). Prologue: Some thoughts on the history of the evolutionary synthesis. In E. Mayr & W. B. Provine (Eds.), The evolutionary synthesis: Perspectives on the unification of biology (pp. 1-48). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
26.
Mayr, E. (1991). One long argument. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
27.
Myers, N., & Kent, J. (2004). The new consumers. Washington, DC: Island Press.
28.
Moghaddam, F. M. (2006). Catastrophic evolution, culture and diversity management policy. Culture & Psychology, 12, 415-434.
29.
Nisbet, R. A. (1969). Social change and history. New York: Oxford University Press.
30.
Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization: Social theory and global culture. London: Sage.
31.
Sabbagh, C. (2005). Environmentalism, right-wing authoritarianism, and social justice beliefs among East German adolescents. International Journal of Psychology, 40, 118-131.
32.
Sidanius, J., & Pratto, F. (1999). Social dominance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
33.
Sperber, D. (1996). Explaining culture: A naturalistic approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
34.
Sperber, D. (2000). An objection to the memetic approach to culture. In R. Aunger (Ed.), Darwinizing culture (pp. 163-173). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
35.
Trigger, B. G. (1998). Sociocultural evolution. Oxford: Blackwell.
36.
Urban, G. (2001). Metaculture: How culture moves through the world. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
37.
Wallerstein, I. (1974). The modern world system (Vols. 1-3). New York: Academic Press.
38.
Weber, M. (1958). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (T. Parsons, Trans.). New York: Scribner. (Original work published 1904-1905).
