scholarly journals Self-Organized Cultural Cycles and the Uncertainty of Archaeological Thought

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Diachenko ◽  
Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Culture Change ◽  
Horizontal Transmission ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Replication Rate ◽  
Complex Dynamic ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Punctuated Evolution

AbstractContributing to the issue of complex relationship between social and cultural evolution, this paper aims to analyze repetitive patterns, or cycles, in the development of material culture. Our analysis focuses on culture change associated with sociopolitical and economic stasis. The proposed toy model describes the cyclical character of the quantitative and qualitative composition of archaeological assemblages, which include hierarchically organized cultural traits. Cycles sequentially process the stages of unification, diversity, and return to unification. This complex dynamic behavior is caused by the ratio between cultural traits’ replication rate and the proportion of traits of the higher taxonomic order’s related unit. Our approach identifies a shift from conformist to anti-conformist transmission, corresponding with open and closed phases in cultural evolution in respect to the introduction of innovations. The model also describes the dependence of a probability for horizontal transmission upon orders of taxonomic hierarchy during open phases. The obtained results are indicative for gradual cultural evolution at the low orders of taxonomic hierarchy and punctuated evolution at its high orders. The similarity of the model outcomes to the patters of material culture change reflecting societal transformations enables discussions around the uncertainty of explanation in archaeology and anthropology.

scholarly journals Is horizontal transmission really a problem for phylogenetic comparative methods? A simulation study using continuous cultural traits

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1559) ◽  
pp. 3903-3912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Currie ◽  
Simon J. Greenhill ◽  
Ruth Mace
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Horizontal Transmission ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods ◽  
Ancestral State ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Trait Evolution ◽  
Phylogenetic Methods ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Future Work

Phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) provide a potentially powerful toolkit for testing hypotheses about cultural evolution. Here, we build on previous simulation work to assess the effect horizontal transmission between cultures has on the ability of both phylogenetic and non-phylogenetic methods to make inferences about trait evolution. We found that the mode of horizontal transmission of traits has important consequences for both methods. Where traits were horizontally transmitted separately , PCMs accurately reported when trait evolution was not correlated even at the highest levels of horizontal transmission. By contrast, linear regression analyses often incorrectly concluded that traits were correlated. Where simulated trait evolution was not correlated and traits were horizontally transmitted as a pair , both methods inferred increased levels of positive correlation with increasing horizontal transmission. Where simulated trait evolution was correlated, increasing rates of separate horizontal transmission led to decreasing levels of inferred correlation for both methods, but increasing rates of paired horizontal transmission did not. Furthermore, the PCM was also able to make accurate inferences about the ancestral state of traits. These results suggest that under certain conditions, PCMs can be robust to the effects of horizontal transmission. We discuss ways that future work can investigate the mode and tempo of horizontal transmission of cultural traits.

Analogies are powerful and dangerous things

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 350-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder ◽  
Richard McElreath ◽  
Kari Britt Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Horizontal Transmission ◽  
Evolutionary Approach ◽  
Genetic Evolution ◽  
Cultural Inheritance ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Strongly Agree

The analogy between biological and cultural evolution is not perfect. Yet, as Mesoudi et al. show, many of the vaunted differences between cultural and genetic evolution (for example, an absence of discrete particles of cultural inheritance, and the blurred distinction between cultural replicators and cultural phenotypes) are, on closer inspection, either illusory or peripheral to the validity of the analogy. But what about horizontal transmission? We strongly agree with the authors that the potential for horizontal transmission of cultural traits does not invalidate an evolutionary approach to culture. We suggest, however, that it does require a different evolutionary treatment.

scholarly journals Epistasis between cultural traits causes paradigm shifts in cultural evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 191813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Pascual ◽  
Jacobo Aguirre ◽  
Susanna Manrubia ◽  
José A. Cuesta
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Fitness Landscape ◽  
Horizontal Transmission ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Cultural Paradigm ◽  
Population Dynamics Model ◽  
Emergent Feature ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Cultural Shifts ◽  
Irreversible Nature

Every now and then the cultural paradigm of a society changes. While current models of cultural shifts usually require a major exogenous or endogenous change, we propose that the mechanism underlying many paradigm shifts may just be an emergent feature of the inherent congruence among different cultural traits. We implement this idea through a population dynamics model in which individuals are defined by a vector of cultural traits that changes mainly through cultural contagion, biased by a ‘cultural fitness’ landscape, between contemporary individuals. Cultural traits reinforce or hinder each other (through a form of cultural epistasis) to prevent cognitive dissonance. Our main result is that abrupt paradigm shifts occur, in response to weak changes in the landscape, only in the presence of epistasis between cultural traits, and regardless of whether horizontal transmission is biased by homophily. A relevant consequence of this dynamics is the irreversible nature of paradigm shifts: the old paradigm cannot be restored even if the external changes are undone. Our model puts the phenomenon of paradigm shifts in cultural evolution in the same category as catastrophic shifts in ecology or phase transitions in physics, where minute causes lead to major collective changes.

Unsustainable Capitalism

2001 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-34
Author(s):  
Allan Macinnes
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Culture Change ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Individual

This paper makes an important, interdisciplinary contribution, to the ongoing debate on the transition from clanship to capitalism. Integral to this contribution is the important distinction between capitalism as an individualist ideology and capitalist societies where individualism is a widespread but not necessarily a universal ideology. His concern is not with the bipolar opposition of landlord and people which tends to dominate debates on the land issue in the Highlands. Instead, he focuses on material culture change in relation to landscape organisation, settlement patterns and morphology in order to examine how social relationships were structured during the critical period of estate re-orientation often depicted progressively as Improvement but regressively as clearance through the removal and relocation of population. His case study on Kintyre is particularly valuable. By scrutinising spatial as well as social relationships Dalglish demonstrates that clanship was based as much on daily practices of living as on an patrimonial ideology of kinship, practices which led the House of Argyll to attempt the reinvention of concepts of occupancy in order to emphasise the importance of the individual over the family through partitioned space.

scholarly journals Cultural accumulation and improvement in online fan fiction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Pianzola ◽  
Alberto Acerbi ◽  
Simone Rebora
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Fan Fiction ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution Theory ◽  
Digital Literary Studies

We analyse stories in Harry Potter fan fiction published on Archive of Our Own (AO3), using concepts from cultural evolution. In particular, we focus on cumulative cultural evolution, that is, the idea that cultural systems improve with time, drawing on previous innovations. In this study we examine two features of cumulative culture: accumulation and improvement. First, we show that stories in Harry Potter’s fan fiction accumulate cultural traits—unique tags, in our analysis—through time, both globally and at the level of single stories. Second, more recent stories are also liked more by readers than earlier stories. Our research illustrates the potential of the combination of cultural evolution theory and digital literary studies, and it paves the way for the study of the effects of online digital media on cultural cumulation.

scholarly journals The Uses and Abuses of Tree Thinking in Cultural Evolution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara Evans ◽  
Simon J. Greenhill ◽  
Joseph Watts ◽  
Johann-Mattis List ◽  
Carlos A. Botero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Tree Thinking ◽  
Phylogenetic Methods ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Cross Cultural Research ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Lines Of Evidence ◽  
Over Time

Modern phylogenetic methods are increasingly being used to address questions about macro-level patterns in cultural evolution. These methods can illuminate the unobservable histories of cultural traits and identify the evolutionary drivers of trait-change over time, but their application is not without pitfalls. Here we outline the current scope of research in cultural tree thinking, highlighting a toolkit of best practices to navigate and avoid the pitfalls and ‘abuses’ associated with their application. We emphasise two principles that support the appropriate application of phylogenetic methodologies in cross-cultural research: researchers should (1) draw on multiple lines of evidence when deciding if and which types of phylogenetic methods and models are suitable for their cross-cultural data, and (2) carefully consider how different cultural traits might have different evolutionary histories across space and time. When used appropriately phylogenetic methods can provide powerful insights into the processes of evolutionary change that have shaped the broad patterns of human history.

scholarly journals Guttman Scale Analysis and its use to explain Cultural Evolution and Social Change

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rochelle Forrester
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Scale Analysis ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Guttman Scale ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Universal Pattern

Guttman scale analysis is a very useful tool to understand the evolution of societies. It shows the accumulation of cultural traits throughout history in various societies and that those cultural traits were usually accumulated in the same order. The results of studies, by Robert Carneiro and others, shows the accumulation of cultural traits is not random and indicates a universal pattern in cultural evolution. The universal pattern is caused by increasing human knowledge of the environment we live in. Human societies usually acquire this knowledge in the same order, with easier discoveries concerning the natural world being made earlier than more complex discoveries. This means human social and cultural history, usually follows a particular course, a course that is determined by the structure of the human environment.

scholarly journals Cross-correlations of American baby names

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (26) ◽  
pp. 7943-7947 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Barucca ◽  
Jacopo Rocchi ◽  
Enzo Marinari ◽  
Giorgio Parisi ◽  
Federico Ricci-Tersenghi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Quantitative Description ◽  
The United States ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
The People ◽  
Cultural Movements ◽  
Cross Correlations ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
The One

The quantitative description of cultural evolution is a challenging task. The most difficult part of the problem is probably to find the appropriate measurable quantities that can make more quantitative such evasive concepts as, for example, dynamics of cultural movements, behavioral patterns, and traditions of the people. A strategy to tackle this issue is to observe particular features of human activities, i.e., cultural traits, such as names given to newborns. We study the names of babies born in the United States from 1910 to 2012. Our analysis shows that groups of different correlated states naturally emerge in different epochs, and we are able to follow and decrypt their evolution. Although these groups of states are stable across many decades, a sudden reorganization occurs in the last part of the 20th century. We unambiguously demonstrate that cultural evolution of society can be observed and quantified by looking at cultural traits. We think that this kind of quantitative analysis can be possibly extended to other cultural traits: Although databases covering more than one century (such as the one we used) are rare, the cultural evolution on shorter timescales can be studied due to the fact that many human activities are usually recorded in the present digital era.

Simulations and Outputs

Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 871-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seren Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Data Selection ◽  
Multiple Model ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Specific Data ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Site Chronology ◽  
A Site ◽  
Regional Analyses

Bayesian analysis is now routinely applied for the construction of site-specific stratigraphic chronological models. Other approaches have analyzed the chronology of phases of archaeological activity across regions. The available radiocarbon results—the nature of the samples and their associations—provide the basis for what chronological questions it is possible to address for any site or region. In dealing with regional analyses, due consideration must be made of data selection. While data selection might be a relatively self-evident consideration in the analysis of a site chronology, working with data from a larger region poses a number of specific data selection issues. Robust association between dated samples and a particular type of diagnostic material culture or site may provide one means of producing regional chronologies. However, if the activity under investigation includes a number of different cultural traits, which are related but with each having a slightly different chronological currency, defining the temporal end of data selection becomes more problematic. This article presents one approach, using a case study from the British Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, with 880 simulation OxCal models used to investigate the effect of variously defining the end of a regional archaeological phase. The results emphasize that for a regional case study, sensitivity analysis may provide a useful tool to ensure representative models; the study also highlights the importance of comparing multiple model posteriors.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document