scholarly journals A systems approach to cultural evolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Buskell ◽  
Magnus Enquist ◽  
Fredrik Jansson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Decision Rules ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary

Abstract A widely accepted view in the cultural evolutionary literature is that culture forms a dynamic system of elements (or ‘traits’) linked together by a variety of relationships. Despite this, large families of models within the cultural evolutionary literature tend to represent only a small number of traits, or traits without interrelationships. As such, these models may be unable to capture complex dynamics resulting from multiple interrelated traits. Here we put forward a systems approach to cultural evolutionary research—one that explicitly represents numerous cultural traits and their relationships to one another. Basing our discussion on simple graph-based models, we examine the implications of the systems approach in four domains: (i) the cultural evolution of decision rules (‘filters’) and their influence on the distribution of cultural traits in a population; (ii) the contingency and stochasticity of system trajectories through a structured state space; (iii) how trait interrelationships can modulate rates of cultural change; and (iv) how trait interrelationships can contribute to understandings of inter-group differences in realised traits. We suggest that the preliminary results presented here should inspire greater attention to the role of multiple interrelated traits on cultural evolution, and should motivate attempts to formalise the rich body of analyses and hypotheses within the humanities and social science literatures.

scholarly journals Current and potential roles of archaeology in the development of cultural evolutionary theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1743) ◽  
pp. 20170057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raven Garvey
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Archaeological Analysis

Archaeology has much to contribute to the study of cultural evolution. Empirical data at archaeological timescales are uniquely well suited to tracking rates of cultural change, detecting phylogenetic signals among groups of artefacts, and recognizing long-run effects of distinct cultural transmission mechanisms. Nonetheless, these are still relatively infrequent subjects of archaeological analysis and archaeology's potential to help advance our understanding of cultural evolution has thus far been largely unrealized. Cultural evolutionary models developed in other fields have been used to interpret patterns identified in archaeological records, which in turn provides independent tests of these models' predictions, as demonstrated here through a study of late Prehistoric stone projectile points from the US Southwest. These tests may not be straightforward, though, because archaeological data are complex, often representing events aggregated over many years (or centuries or millennia), while processes thought to drive cultural evolution (e.g. biased learning) operate on much shorter timescales. To fulfil archaeology's potential, we should continue to develop models specifically tailored to archaeological circumstances, and explore ways to incorporate the rich contextual data produced by archaeological research. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution’.

scholarly journals Identifying innovation in laboratory studies of cultural evolution: rates of retention and measures of adaptation

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1690) ◽  
pp. 20150193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Caldwell ◽  
Hannah Cornish ◽  
Anne Kandler
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Laboratory Studies ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Task Success

In recent years, laboratory studies of cultural evolution have become increasingly prevalent as a means of identifying and understanding the effects of cultural transmission on the form and functionality of transmitted material. The datasets generated by these studies may provide insights into the conditions encouraging, or inhibiting, high rates of innovation, as well as the effect that this has on measures of adaptive cultural change. Here we review recent experimental studies of cultural evolution with a view to elucidating the role of innovation in generating observed trends. We first consider how tasks are presented to participants, and how the corresponding conceptualization of task success is likely to influence the degree of intent underlying any deviations from perfect reproduction. We then consider the measures of interest used by the researchers to track the changes that occur as a result of transmission, and how these are likely to be affected by differing rates of retention. We conclude that considering studies of cultural evolution from the perspective of innovation provides us with valuable insights that help to clarify important differences in research designs, which have implications for the likely effects of variation in retention rates on measures of cultural adaptation.

scholarly journals How cultural evolution can inform the science of science communication—and vice versa

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theiss Bendixen
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Real World ◽  
Behavioral Change ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Science Of Science ◽  
Real World Setting ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary

AbstractCultural evolution research is the study of how cultural traits (e.g., beliefs and behavioral patterns) stabilize, change and diffuse in populations, and why some cultural traits are more “attractive” (i.e., more likely to spread) than others. As such, cultural evolution is highly relevant for the emerging “science of science communication” (SSC) in that it can help organize and guide the study of science communication efforts aimed at spreading scientifically accurate information and inspiring behavioral change. Here, I synthesize insights and theory from cultural evolution with central findings and concepts within the SSC with the aim of highlighting the inherent, but underexplored, consilience between these two fields. I demonstrate how cultural evolution can serve as an unifying framework for the SSC and how, conversely, science communication can serve as a fertile testing ground for applying, exploring, and advancing cultural evolutionary theory in a real-world setting that matters. Lastly, I highlight merits and limitations of previous applications of cultural evolution to science communication and conclude with some particularly outstanding questions that emerge at the intersection between cultural evolution and science communication research.

scholarly journals THE CULTURAL EVOLUTION OF ADAPTIVE-TRAIT DIVERSITY WHEN RESOURCES ARE UNCERTAIN AND FINITE

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 1150013 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK W. LAKE ◽  
ENRICO R. CREMA
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Ideal Free Distribution ◽  
Shared Resource ◽  
Trait Diversity ◽  
Low Diversity ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
High Diversity ◽  
Ideal Free

In this paper, we seek to build on existing mathematical studies of cultural change by exploring how the diversity of adaptive cultural traits evolves by innovation and cultural transmission when the payoff from adopting traits is both uncertain and frequency dependent. The model is particularly aimed at understanding the evolution of subsistence trait diversity, since the payoff from exploiting particular resources is often variable and subject to diminishing returns as a result of overexploitation. We find that traits that exploit the same shared resource evolve most quickly when intermediate rates of cultural transmission promote fluctuation in trait diversity. Higher rates of cultural transmission, which promote predominantly low diversity, and lower rates, which promote predominantly high diversity, both retard the adoption of traits offering higher payoff. We also find that the distribution of traits that exploit independent resources can evolve towards the theoretical Ideal Free Distribution so long as the rate of cultural transmission is low. Increasing the rate of cultural transmission reduces trait diversity, so that a more limited number of "niches" are occupied at any given time.

scholarly journals A cultural evolutionary behavior genetics will need a more sophisticated conceptualization of cultural traits

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moin Syed ◽  
Phuong Linh Le Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Behavior Genetics ◽  
Clear Definition ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
And Behavior

A framework that brings together cultural perspectives and behavior genetics has long been needed. To be successful, however, we need sophistication in the conceptualization of culture. Here, we highlight three imperatives to this end: the need for a clear definition of cultural traits, inclusion of the role of societal power, and recognizing the distinction between traits and characteristic adaptations.

scholarly journals Pursuing Darwin’s curious parallel: Prospects for a science of cultural evolution

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (30) ◽  
pp. 7853-7860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Mesoudi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Learning Biases ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Evolutionary Science ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution ◽  
Review Current

In the past few decades, scholars from several disciplines have pursued the curious parallel noted by Darwin between the genetic evolution of species and the cultural evolution of beliefs, skills, knowledge, languages, institutions, and other forms of socially transmitted information. Here, I review current progress in the pursuit of an evolutionary science of culture that is grounded in both biological and evolutionary theory, but also treats culture as more than a proximate mechanism that is directly controlled by genes. Both genetic and cultural evolution can be described as systems of inherited variation that change over time in response to processes such as selection, migration, and drift. Appropriate differences between genetic and cultural change are taken seriously, such as the possibility in the latter of nonrandomly guided variation or transformation, blending inheritance, and one-to-many transmission. The foundation of cultural evolution was laid in the late 20th century with population-genetic style models of cultural microevolution, and the use of phylogenetic methods to reconstruct cultural macroevolution. Since then, there have been major efforts to understand the sociocognitive mechanisms underlying cumulative cultural evolution, the consequences of demography on cultural evolution, the empirical validity of assumed social learning biases, the relative role of transformative and selective processes, and the use of quantitative phylogenetic and multilevel selection models to understand past and present dynamics of society-level change. I conclude by highlighting the interdisciplinary challenges of studying cultural evolution, including its relation to the traditional social sciences and humanities.

scholarly journals The Role of the Learner in the Cultural Evolution of Vocalizations

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abby Chopoorian ◽  
Yakov Pichkar ◽  
Nicole Creanza
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Learning Preferences ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
Learned Behaviors ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Over Time

As a uniquely human behavior, language is crucial to our understanding of ourselves and of the world around us. Despite centuries of research into how languages have historically developed and how people learn them, fully understanding the origin and evolution of language remains an ongoing challenge. In parallel, researchers have studied the divergence of birdsong in vocal-learning songbirds to uncover broader patterns of cultural evolution. One approach to studying cultural change over time, adapted from biology, focuses on the transmission of socially learned traits, including language, in a population. By studying how learning and the distribution of cultural traits interact at the population level, we can better understand the processes that underlie cultural evolution. Here, we take a two-fold approach to understanding the cultural evolution of vocalizations, with a focus on the role of the learner in cultural transmission. First, we explore previous research on the evolution of social learning, focusing on recent progress regarding the origin and ongoing cultural evolution of both language and birdsong. We then use a spatially explicit population model to investigate the coevolution of culture and learning preferences, with the assumption that selection acts directly on cultural phenotypes and indirectly on learning preferences. Our results suggest that the spatial distribution of learned behaviors can cause unexpected evolutionary patterns of learning. We find that, intuitively, selection for rare cultural phenotypes can indirectly favor a novelty-biased learning strategy. In contrast, selection for common cultural phenotypes leads to cultural homogeneity; we find that there is no selective pressure on learning strategy without cultural variation. Thus, counterintuitively, selection for common cultural traits does not consistently favor conformity bias, and novelty bias can stably persist in this cultural context. We propose that the evolutionary dynamics of learning preferences and cultural biases can depend on the existing variation of learned behaviors, and that this interaction could be important to understanding the origin and evolution of cultural systems such as language and birdsong. Selection acting on learned behaviors may indirectly impose counterintuitive selective pressures on learning strategies, and understanding the cultural landscape is crucial to understanding how patterns of learning might change over time.

The Evolution of Culture as a New Pattern for Comparative Religion

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-156
Author(s):  
Aiyana K. Willard
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

AbstractIn his new book, Paden argues that evolutionary theory creates new and fertile ground for the comparative study of religion. I suggest that extending Paden’s argument to embrace new theories of cultural evolution will continue to broaden our ability understand the origins of both the similarities and differences in religions across societies. Religions are cultural systems and as such an understanding of our shared biology can only explain a limited amount of what religion is and does. I discuss how new cultural evolutionary theories that examine cultural variation and cultural change based on how humans learn and transmit cultural content and can improve the theoretical foundations of comparative studies of religion. Exploring different mechanisms of cultural learning can help explain why certain features of religion are found across a wide variety of religions while others are only found in specific groups.

scholarly journals Cultural Evolutionary Neuroscience

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryutaro Uchiyama ◽  
Michael Muthukrishna
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Neuroscience ◽  
Gene Frequencies ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
And Function ◽  
Evolutionary Neuroscience

Cultural evolution and cultural neuroscience are complementary approaches to understanding the origins and function of cross-cultural differences in psychology. Cultural evolution, and Dual Inheritance Theory more generally, offers a theoretical framework for understanding cultural transmission and cultural change and how these can change gene frequencies. However, these theories have largely ignored the details of the minds engaging in these processes. Cultural evolutionary models tend to treat the brain as a black-box. Cultural neuroscience offers a rich toolkit for examining how cross-cultural psychological differences manifest at a neurological level. However, these tools have largely been used to document differences between populations. Cultural neuroscience tends to ignore why we should expect these differences or how to identify if they are meaningful. We review work in each field to carve a pathway for a productive synthesis. This cultural evolutionary neuroscience will benefit both fields and lead to a more complete understanding of human culture.

scholarly journals Maintenance of prior behaviour can enhance cultural selection

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley Walker ◽  
José Segovia Martín ◽  
Monica Tamariz ◽  
Nicolas Fay
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Cultural Selection ◽  
Agent Based Modelling ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary

AbstractMany cultural phenomena evolve through a Darwinian process whereby adaptive variants are selected and spread at the expense of competing variants. While cultural evolutionary theory emphasises the importance of social learning to this process, experimental studies indicate that people’s dominant response is to maintain their prior behaviour. In addition, while payoff-biased learning is crucial to Darwinian cultural evolution, learner behaviour is not always guided by variant payoffs. Here, we use agent-based modelling to investigate the role of maintenance in Darwinian cultural evolution. We vary the degree to which learner behaviour is payoff-biased (i.e., based on critical evaluation of variant payoffs), and compare three uncritical (non-payoff-biased) strategies that are used alongside payoff-biased learning: copying others, innovating new variants, and maintaining prior variants. In line with previous research, we show that some level of payoff-biased learning is crucial for populations to converge on adaptive cultural variants. Importantly, when combined with payoff-biased learning, uncritical maintenance leads to stronger population-level adaptation than uncritical copying or innovation, highlighting the importance of maintenance to cultural selection. This advantage of maintenance as a default learning strategy may help explain why it is a common human behaviour.

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