LEVYNA conducted field research in Mauritius
In the 70s, two scientific approaches to the evolutionary study of culture emerged – memetics and the gene-culture coevolutionary theory. While the gene-culture coevolutionary theory still thrives, memetics appears to be a dead scientific discipline. Why?
Radim’s paper, which focuses on diachronic development of memetics rather than its logical inconsistencies, claims that while the field of gene-culture coevolution focused on testing hypotheses, memetics got preoccupied with the ontology of the meme as a discrete unit of selection, strictly applying the gene-centered approach to culture, and differentiating between biological and memetic fitness. Thus, memetics was unable to study the adaptive function of culture, an approach that proved fruitful in the gene-culture coevolutionary theory.
You can find the article here: https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/posc_a_00350
In a new study published in Human Nature, LEVYNA was part of a team lead by A.K. Willard, studying how witchcraft beliefs affect social norms and behaviors. Specifically, researchers investigated whether witchcraft is regarded to be motivated by envy and how this notion influences community interactions. The findings show that, while witchcraft accusations were common, they were mostly directed at persons suspected of acting out of envy.