The transmission of behaviors broadly defined between generations through the mechanisms of instruction, teaching, observational learning, imitation and their combinations, resulting in the accumulation of knowledge and traditions reflected, for example, in child-rearing practices. Thus, unlike biological evolution, it abides by Lamarckian principles. Transmission can occur vertically (from parent to offspring), horizontally (between members of the same age group or generation) and obliquely (from non-parental members of the parental generation to offspring). Innovative or accidental changes in the content of these transmissions can result in cultural change or cultural evolution. What is sometimes overlooked is that the pathways of transmission can be reversed such that the offspring are the transmitting source. The best-known example of this pathway of cultural evolution concerns the free-ranging Japanese macaque monkeys of Koshima Island who were first studied in the 1950s. When sweet potatoes were scattered on the beach, the troop moved out of its forest habitat. In the new habitat, a 1.5 year-old female (Imo) invented the act of potato washing in fresh water then later in the sea. This act was initially imitated by her playmates and much later by adults older than 12 years. When Imo’s playmates became mothers themselves, they ensured that potato washing became a tradition through encouraging their infants to imitate them. There are other examples the same phenomenon in Japanese macaques (e.g., caramel eating that was first accepted by those under 3 years of age and then propagated through the dominance hierarchy, first with the mother and then with sub-leaders and leaders of the troop). These, and other primate studies, raise the issue of whether culture and cultural evolution are restricted to humans. Other issues have concerned whether cultural evolution is unilinear or multilinear and involves progress, to what extent it is analogous to biological evolution (e.g., is there such a thing as cultural selection?) or whether they interact in some way, and what is the unit of transmission (one of the most recent examples being the meme concept).
See Anthropology, Biological evolution, Cultural selection, Cultural evolution and biological evolution, Culture, Lamarckism, Meme, Orthogenetic principle, Progress