Association for Behavior Analysis International

Cultural practices are maintained by social contingencies that prevail in a given society, group, or organization. They may be in vigor for variable lengths of time, from some months, as in fashion, to some centuries, as contingencies that are part of the identity of ethnic groups. Most human operant behavior may come under the classification of cultural practices. Even behaviors common to all humans, like eating, are linked to social contingencies that determine what and how to eat. Such behaviors are acquired by newcomers to any given group, either a child or a stranger, by learning processes that may involve modeling, rules, and/or direct exposure to the contingencies. So contingencies, more than behaviors or consequences, are better to characterize any event as cultural.

Anyone interested in cultural contingencies.

Behavior analysts generally recognize that the operation of behavioral principles in the everyday world is constrained by the biology of behaving organisms and, in the case of humans, by the particulars of the cultural environment in which behavior occurs. In this paper, we distinguish between process and content in behavioral and cultural domains. We explore the constraints on behavior imposed by culture, conceived here as that part of the environment constructed by multiple people over extended time periods. It is suggested that "cultural practices" is not a technical term in a behavior analytic analysis of cultures, but rather is an everyday term used for a multiplicity of phenomena. The phenomena commonly called "cultural practices" are examined as products of various combinations of behavioral and cultural level contingencies of selection.

In contrast to many social sciences, behavior analysis offers a technical conceptual framework that is generic in the sense that it is valid in different contexts and for a variety of organisms. The selectionist perspective adds value to the analysis of behavior at different levels of complexity. The systems' perspective extends the scale and scope for behavior analysis to explain such phenomena as emergent behavior, self-organizing behavioral systems and the consequences of cultural cusps. The complex (functional) relations between behaviors and systems contingencies might be relevant when exploring both cultural selection and the selection of cultures.

Collective violence (war, terrorism, violent political conflicts, genocide, repression, organized criminal activity, disappearances, torture, and a range of other abuses of human rights) killed at least 200 million people, and injured an incalculable number during the 20th century. The problem clearly continues into the present in many parts of the world, and offers a rich field for exploring the dynamics of cultural systems. This paper explores the roots of such violence from the perspective of the natural science of behavior, which in combination with historical observation at least suggests potential approaches for understanding and challenging patterns of violence perpetrated among interlocking cultural entities and populations. Examples explored here will be drawn from post-colonial states, in which the dynamics of collective violence can be particularly challenging. The analyses that will be presented suggest that policy makers and communities often rely on politically manipulated strategies that are inherently weak or counterproductive. Constructional options (as sketched here and developed in detail in the authors recent book Strategic Nonviolent Power) offer alternatives drawing on recent advances in the selectionist analysis of cultural practices, networks of interlocking behavioral contingencies, and metacontingencies within behavioral systems. Behavioral systems/cultural analysts face enormous challenges and opportunities in this work, meriting the commitment of substantial scientific resources.