6.10.2026 – Expanded Research Bibliography: Cultural Evolution, Maladaptation, Capitalism, and Human Cognition

This expanded bibliography consolidates books, articles, papers, lectures, institutions, and research programs referenced directly or indirectly throughout the Cultural Evolution project discussions. The emphasis is on scholarly literature relevant to cultural evolution, cognitive bias, evolutionary psychology, social cognition, capitalism, maladaptation, inequality, and ecological sustainability.

Core Cultural Evolution and Gene–Culture Coevolution

• Boyd, Robert, and Peter J. Richerson. Culture and the Evolutionary Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
• Boyd, Robert, and Peter J. Richerson. Not By Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution. University of Chicago Press, 2005.
• Henrich, Joseph. The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter. Princeton University Press, 2016.
• Henrich, Joseph. The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.
• Creanza, Nicole, Oren Kolodny, and Marcus W. Feldman. ‘How Culture Evolves and Why It Matters.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 30 (2017): 7782–7789.
• Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca, and Marcus Feldman. Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach. Princeton University Press, 1981.
• Richerson, Peter, and Robert Boyd. ‘Built for Speed, Not for Comfort: Darwinian Theory and Human Culture.’ History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 23, no. 3/4 (2001): 423–463.
• Mesoudi, Alex. Cultural Evolution: How Darwinian Theory Can Explain Human Culture and Synthesize the Social Sciences. University of Chicago Press, 2011.
• Wilson, David Sloan. Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society. University of Chicago Press, 2002.
• Tomasello, Michael. The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Harvard University Press, 1999.

Evolutionary Psychology and Social Cognition

• Tooby, John, and Leda Cosmides. ‘The Psychological Foundations of Culture.’ In The Adapted Mind, edited by Jerome Barkow, Leda Cosmides, and John Tooby. Oxford University Press, 1992.
• Barkow, Jerome, Leda Cosmides, and John Tooby, eds. The Adapted Mind. Oxford University Press, 1992.
• Dunbar, Robin. Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language. Harvard University Press, 1996.
• Mercier, Hugo, and Dan Sperber. The Enigma of Reason. Harvard University Press, 2017.
• Gazzaniga, Michael. The Social Brain. Basic Books, 1985.
• Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
• Tversky, Amos, and Daniel Kahneman. ‘Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.’ Science 185, no. 4157 (1974): 1124–1131.
• Tversky, Amos, and Daniel Kahneman. ‘Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk.’ Econometrica 47, no. 2 (1979): 263–291.
• Janis, Irving. Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes. Houghton Mifflin, 1982.
• Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Pantheon, 2012.

Neuroscience and the Social Brain

• Kanwisher, Nancy. MIT lecture series: The Human Brain.
• Frith, Chris, and Uta Frith. ‘The Social Brain: Allowing Humans to Boldly Go Where No Other Species Has Been.’ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 365 (2010): 165–176.
• Lieberman, Matthew. Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect. Crown, 2013.
• Tomasello, Michael et al. research on shared intentionality and cooperation.
• Research literature on gaze-following, white sclera evolution, and social signaling.

Human Origins, Archaeology, and Ancient DNA

• Reich, David. Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past. Pantheon, 2018.
• Pääbo, Svante. Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes. Basic Books, 2014.
• Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harper, 2015.
• Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. W.W. Norton, 1997.
• Scott, James C. Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States. Yale University Press, 2017.
• Graeber, David, and David Wengrow. The Dawn of Everything. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.

Capitalism, Political Economy, and Inequality

• Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. 1776.
• Marx, Karl. Capital, Volume I. 1867.
• Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation. Beacon Press, 1944.
• Piketty, Thomas. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Harvard University Press, 2014.
• Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press, 2005.
• Stiglitz, Joseph. The Price of Inequality. W.W. Norton, 2012.
• Keen, Steve. Debunking Economics. Zed Books, 2001.
• Mazzucato, Mariana. The Value of Everything. PublicAffairs, 2018.
• Graeber, David. Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Melville House, 2011.
• Literature on financialization, shareholder value ideology, stock buybacks, and monopoly concentration.

Modern Monetary Theory and Macroeconomics

• Kelton, Stephanie. The Deficit Myth. PublicAffairs, 2020.
• Wray, L. Randall. Modern Money Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
• Lerner, Abba. ‘Functional Finance and the Federal Debt.’ Social Research 10, no. 1 (1943): 38–51.
• Mosler, Warren. Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy. Valance, 2010.

Ecology, Sustainability, and Maladaptation

• Odum, Howard T. Environment, Power and Society. Wiley-Interscience, 1971.
• Meadows, Donella et al. The Limits to Growth. Universe Books, 1972.
• Rockström, Johan et al. ‘Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity.’ Ecology and Society 14, no. 2 (2009).
• Saito, Kohei. Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto. Astra House, 2024.
• Research literature on evolutionary mismatch and metabolic syndrome.
• Research literature on obesity, diabetes, industrial food systems, and ultra-processed foods.

Networked Intelligence, Complexity, and Systems

• Santa Fe Institute publications on complexity and collective intelligence.
• Holland, John H. Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity. Perseus Books, 1995.
• Mitchell, Melanie. Complexity: A Guided Tour. Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Watts, Duncan. Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. W.W. Norton, 2003.
• Research on distributed cognition, networked intelligence, and collective problem solving.

Social Movements, Identity, and Political Polarization

• Putnam, Robert. Bowling Alone. Simon & Schuster, 2000.
• Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. Verso, 1983.
• Research literature on authoritarian populism and tribal political identity.
• Research on misinformation, conspiracy thinking, and media ecosystems.
• Historical research on the Stonewall Rebellion and LGBTQ rights movements.

Primary Project Documents and Internal Essays

• Orton, Mark M. THE HEIST: How the Rich and Corporations Stole the American Dream.
• Orton, Mark M. Capitalism – The Actual Workings.
• Orton, Mark M. ‘Cultural Maladaptation Thesis’ (working essay, 2022).
• Project discussions on cognitive filters, maladaptation, and cultural evolution.

This document remains a working bibliography rather than a finalized academic reference apparatus. Many references emerged organically during exploratory discussions and should eventually be standardized into Chicago, APA, or MLA format with publication metadata and DOI information.