scholarly journals How Do People Become W.E.I.R.D.? Migration Reveals the Cultural Transmission Mechanisms Underlying Variation in Psychological Processes

PLoS ONE ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e0147162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Mesoudi ◽  
Kesson Magid ◽  
Delwar Hussain
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mason Youngblood ◽  
David Lahti

In this study, we used a longitudinal dataset of house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) song recordings spanning four decades in the introduced eastern range to assess how individual-level cultural transmission mechanisms drive population-level changes in birdsong. First, we developed an agent-based model (available as a new R package called TransmissionBias) that simulates the cultural transmission of house finch song given different parameters related to transmission biases, or biases in social learning that modify the probability of adoption of particular cultural variants. Next, we used approximate Bayesian computation and machine learning to estimate what parameter values likely generated the temporal changes in diversity in our observed data. We found evidence that strong content bias, likely targeted towards syllable complexity, plays a central role in the cultural evolution of house finch song in western Long Island. Frequency and demonstrator biases appear to be neutral or absent. Additionally, we estimated that house finch song is transmitted with extremely high fidelity. Future studies should use our simulation framework to better understand how cultural transmission and population declines influence song diversity in wild populations.


2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Rendell ◽  
Hal Whitehead

Studies of animal culture have not normally included a consideration of cetaceans. However, with several long-term field studies now maturing, this situation should change. Animal culture is generally studied by either investigating transmission mechanisms experimentally, or observing patterns of behavioural variation in wild populations that cannot be explained by either genetic or environmental factors. Taking this second, ethnographic, approach, there is good evidence for cultural transmission in several cetacean species. However, only the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops) has been shown experimentally to possess sophisticated social learning abilities, including vocal and motor imitation; other species have not been studied. There is observational evidence for imitation and teaching in killer whales. For cetaceans and other large, wide-ranging animals, excessive reliance on experimental data for evidence of culture is not productive; we favour the ethnographic approach. The complex and stable vocal and behavioural cultures of sympatric groups of killer whales (Orcinus orca) appear to have no parallel outside humans, and represent an independent evolution of cultural faculties. The wide movements of cetaceans, the greater variability of the marine environment over large temporal scales relative to that on land, and the stable matrilineal social groups of some species are potentially important factors in the evolution of cetacean culture. There have been suggestions of gene-culture coevolution in cetaceans, and culture may be implicated in some unusual behavioural and life-history traits of whales and dolphins. We hope to stimulate discussion and research on culture in these animals.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
María Varde ◽  
Hernán Juan Muscio

This work proposes a methodology for documenting metric patterns of variation and trait correlation in Late Period (ca. CE 900-1500) projectile points from the Puna and pre-Puna of Salta, Argentina. In so doing, our main goal is to explain the patterns observed in terms of mechanisms of cultural evolution and selection over the design of the artefacts. We applied this methodology to assemblages of concave-based triangular projectile points from four archaeological sites whose chronologies are well established. As a result, we were able to document low degrees of variation, as well as high, positive, significant, Pearson co-variation and partial correlation coefficients between metrical traits. These results suggest a process of correlational selection that preserved an artefact design with a structure of highly integrated traits that maximised the edge-area in relation to the haft, turning these projectile points into very lethal weapons, even for potential use in interpersonal violence. This lends support to the hypothesis presented here, where replication of these projectile points occurred within a process of stabilizing cultural selection through biased transmission mechanisms that maintained the functional relations between the variables at the design scale, which in turn favoured the selection of artefacts suitable for effective weapons in a context where hunting was a strategy that optimized animal biomass acquisition, enhancing domestic herd viability.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick H. Kavanagh ◽  
Hannah J. Haynie ◽  
Geoff Kushnick ◽  
Bruno Vilela ◽  
Ty Tuff ◽  
...  

Land ownership shapes natural resource management and social-ecological resilience, but the factors determining ownership norms in human societies remain unclear. Here we conduct a global empirical test of long-standing theories from ecology, economics, and anthropology regarding potential drivers of land ownership and territoriality. Prior theory suggests that resource defensibility, subsistence strategies, population pressure, political complexity, and cultural transmission mechanisms may all influence land ownership. We applied multi-model inference procedures based on logistic regression to cultural and environmental data from 102 societies, 71 with some form of land ownership and 31 with no land ownership. We found an increased probability of land ownership in mountainous environments, where patchy resources may be more cost effective to defend via ownership. We also uncovered support for the role of population pressure, with a greater probability of land ownership in societies living at higher population densities. Our results also show more land ownership when neighboring societies also practiced ownership. We found less support for variables associated with subsistence strategies and political complexity.


2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis M. Herman ◽  
Adam A. Pack

The mechanisms for cultural transmission remain disputable and difficult to validate through observational field studies alone. If controlled experimental laboratory investigation reveals that a putative mechanism is demonstrable in the species under study, then inferences that the same mechanism is operating in the field observation are strengthened.


2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1743) ◽  
pp. 20170057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raven Garvey

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’.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Boyer

AbstractSingh provides the skeletal elements of a possible account of shamanism-like beliefs in many human societies. To be developed into a proper theory, this model needs to be supplemented at several crucial points, in terms of anthropological evidence, psychological processes, and cultural transmission.


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