Cultural Variation: Considerations and Implications

1 Psychological Bulletin2001, Vol. 127, No. 4, 451-471 Copyright 2001 by the American Psychological Association, DOI: Variation: Considerations and ImplicationsDov CohenUniversity of WaterlooCultural systems vary widely across the world. Partly this is due to different cultures' occupying differentecological and environmental niches. But partly it is due to similar circumstances giving rise to multiplestable equilibriums, each with a distinct Cultural form. Using insights and examples from various fields,this article illustrates the way that multiple equilibriums can emerge and the forces that push a culturetoward one equilibrium point or another. Considerations of game theory principles, mutual interdepen-dence, historical circumstance, dependence on initial conditions, and crucial choice points are highlightedin discussing the ways humans create and re-create their culture.

2 Cultural traits develop within physical,social, intracultural, and intercultural niches, and Implications of this for how culture might be studiedand the benefits of combining an "equilibrium" perspective and a "meaning" perspective are are often adaptations to the environment. However, intrying to understand how the diversity of cultures in the world isproduced, there are issues that can prove devastatingly is because the process of mapping Cultural adaptations toenvironmental circumstances is not so simple. Different environ-ments produce different social systems, of course. However, dif-ferent environments can also produce similar systems, and similarenvironments can produce vastly different examine these puzzles, this article brings together insightsand examples from areas such as game theory, evolutionary biol-ogy, dynamic systems theory, political science, and economics asthey bear on the issue of Cultural evolution.

3 An implicit argumenthere is that multiple equilibrium states (described by theorists fromthese fields) map onto multiple coherent meaning systems (de-scribed by anthropologists and cross- Cultural psychologists; Bin-more, 1998; Boyd, 2000; Henrich & Boyd, 1998; Shweder, 1993).Thus, in a system in which actors interact and adjust to each other,there are potentially many different stable social patterns or equi-libriums that can emerge, and these differing social patterns oftenmap onto distinct Cultural systems of rules, norms, and sets ofshared meanings and expectations that adding an equilibrium perspective to the meaning perspec-tive, one can better understand the possible forms cultures can takeand the forces that push and pull a culture to be one way oranother.

4 Possible equilibrium states that can emerge as peopleinteract with one another guide the Cultural forms that develop,and, conversely, the history of Cultural forms helps influencewhich potential equilibrium states will be reached. Cultural psy-I am indebted to Andrea Aguiar, Bill Altermatt, Mike Baumann, RobertBoyd, Dan Dolderman, and Harry Triandis for their comments on an earlierversion of this article. I am further indebted to Joe Vandello for hiscomments on an earlier version and his work on Figure 1. Work on thisarticle was supported in part by grants from the Social Sciences andHumanities Research Council of Canada, the National Science Foun-dation, and the University of concerning this article should be addressed to DovCohen, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo,Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.

5 Electronic mail may be sent to have argued that culture and individual psyches "makeeach other up" (Kitayama & Markus, 1999, p. 252; Shweder,1990). And Considerations of the mutual interdependence of ac-tors, historical patterns and meanings, game theory principles, andcrucial choice points and junctures can highlight the ways thathumans help create and re-create their , perspectives and insights from these various fieldssuggest possibilities for (a) understanding why predicting andexplaining Cultural variation is so frustrating and imperfect, (b)developing explanations for why sometimes very similar ecolog-ical and economic niches lead to dramatically different culturaltraditions, (c) outlining some of the specific mechanisms guidingcultural re-creation and the "mutual constitution" of selvesand cultures (Kitayama & Markus, 1999, p.)

6 251; Moore, 1966;Shweder, 1990), and (d) pointing to potentially useful ways tostudy cultures and their stability and change over time, as well ashighlight future areas of work to be done. These Implications leadaway from theories of ecologies and environments as strict deter-minants of culture and lead toward more complicated views as oneconsiders questions of constraints, interdependence, and the evo-lution of social systems. The suggestion here is not that examiningculture as a functional response to the environment is wrong butrather that this idea becomes more complex as one understandsprocesses by which humans create and re-create Cultural in the discussions that follow is the need to examine theemergence and stability of Cultural traits within f o ur different typesof niches.

7 The physical environment is one of the niches in whichcultural traits develop, and it is quite important. Yet, the discus-sions below also touch on three other types of niches that shapecultural patterning. Considerations of the social niche are impor-tant because humans operate in a social world of actors whointeract with and adjust to other actors trying to do the same game theorists have noted, such mutual interdependence cre-ates possibilities for multiple sorts of stable social patterns todevelop in a given the choice of which pattern emerges and the stability ofvarious patterns will depend on the intracultural n i c he that c u l t u r altraits inhabit. Cultural traits must exist within a niche occupied byother Cultural traits. The contemporary and historical constellationof Cultural patterns in a given society helps shape which traits451452 COHEN emerge at crucial choice points and junctures and which will beassimilated or accommodated when circumstances change or whennew patterns emerge.

8 Finally, as cultures come into contact witheach other through invasion, migration, or simple exposure, cul-tural traits must survive in an intercultural niche where patterns areborrowed, adopted or rejected, or modified and selectively incor-porated. As described below, all four of these types of niches(physical, social, intracultural, and intercultural) a re important inconsidering how Cultural adaptations article has four sections that consider how adaptations arisein various c i r c u m s t a n c e s. In the first section, I briefly review someof the ways t h at different physical ecologies and environments canlead to different Cultural adaptations. In the second, I discuss theissue of multiple stable equilibriums and describe some of thereasons that societies with similar economies and ecologies havegiven rise to dramatically different Cultural forms.

9 In the third, Idiscuss the issue of Cultural constraints and regularities, notingsome factors that limit variation in Cultural systems. And, in thefinal section, I turn to some general Implications of the above forways of studying culture and for potential future 1: Different Environments, Different AdaptationsDifferent economies and ecologies lead to different culturaladaptations (Diamond, 1999; Edgerton, 1971; O'Kelly & Carney,1986; Triandis, 1994; Witkin & Berry, 1975). Important work hasbeen done to show this, and any consideration of Cultural differ-ences must take this as a starting point. Just as different ecologicalniches have led to different adaptations in animal species, so havedifferent environmental niches led to differences in Ecology of ManhoodAs an example, the anthropologist David Gilmore (1990) de-scribed the ways that different environmental conditions lead todifferent conceptions of masculinity.

10 In Manhood in the Making,Gilmore argued that there are essentially 3 Ps of manhood theworld over protecting, procreating, and providing. Environmentsdiffer greatly, however, in how challenging t h e se tasks are. Wherethe environment is harsh and providing and protecting requirecourage and physical prowess ( , in places that survive ondeep-sea fishing or big game hunting), cultures of masculinityemerge in which strength and toughness are valued. Where food isplentiful and easy to get and natural or human enemies are scarce,relatively androgynous sex roles emerge. In Gilmore's (1990)examples, within the groups of the Semai (of Malaysia) andTahitians, there is little distinction between male and female andthere is little of the belligerence and macho posturing that charac-terize men in other cultures:Few demands are made on Tahitian men.