Abstract
The Aim of this paper is an analysis and comparison of evolutionary theories of culture that have been created in so called evolutionary social sciences. The article focuses on the theories of culture, which are based on Darwinian theory of evolution.
Although the theory of evolution is a common denominator of these theories of culture, each of them uses a framework of theory of evolution in a diff erent way, and accentuates the diverse facets of culture in general. On the grounds of similarities and diff erences the article sugg ests to divide the existing evolutionary theories of culture into four main groups.
The main argument is that the groups of theories of culture address diff erent structural levels of culture. The common denominator of cultural research within evolutionary social sciences is the application of an etic approach to culture.
Culture is reduced to behavior; with the exception of theorists of behavioral ecology who use a concept of a heritable information to explain culture from an evolutionary perspective.