scholarly journals Toward a new comparative musicology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick E. Savage ◽  
Steven Brown
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Scientific Methodology ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Human History ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Modern Evolutionary Theory

We propose a return to the forgotten agenda of comparative musicology, one that is updated with the paradigms of modern evolutionary theory and scientific methodology. Ever since the field of comparative musicology became redefined as ethnomusicology in the mid-20th century, its original research agenda has been all but abandoned by musicologists, not least the overarching goal of cross-cultural musical comparison. We outline here five major themes that underlie the re-establishment of comparative musicology: (1) classification, (2) cultural evolution, (3) human history, (4) universals, and (5) biological evolution. Throughout the article, we clarify key ideological, methodological and terminological objections that have been levied against musical comparison. Ultimately, we argue for an inclusive, constructive, and multidisciplinary field that analyzes the world’s musical diversity, from the broadest of generalities to the most culture-specific particulars, with the aim of synthesizing the full range of theoretical perspectives and research methodologies available.

scholarly journals Are phylogenetic patterns the same in anthropology and biology?

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Tree ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Phylogenetic Network ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Genotype Data ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Phylogenetic Methods ◽  
Phenotype Data ◽  
Biology I

The use of phylogenetic methods in anthropological fields such as archaeology, linguistics and stemmatology (involving what are often called ?culture data?) is based on an analogy between human cultural evolution and biological evolution. We need to understand this analogy thoroughly, including how well anthropology data fit the model of a phylogenetic tree, as used in biology. I provide a direct comparison of anthropology datasets with both phenotype and genotype datasets from biology. The anthropology datasets fit the tree model approximately as well as do the genotype data, which is detectably worse than the fit of the phenotype data. This is true for datasets with <500 parsimony-informative characters, as well as for larger datasets. This implies that cross-cultural (horizontal) processes have been important in the evolution of cultural artifacts, as well as branching historical (vertical) processes, and thus a phylogenetic network will be a more appropriate model than a phylogenetic tree.

The human brain: Chairman’s introduction

1981 ◽  
Vol 292 (1057) ◽  
pp. 151-153
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Positive Feedback ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Internal Models ◽  
Adaptive Behaviour ◽  
Myelin Sheaths ◽  
The Brain

Much has been said at the symposium about the pre-eminent role of the brain in the continuing emergence of man. Tobias has spoken of its explosive enlargement during the last 1 Ma, and how much of its enlargement in individual ontogeny is postnatal. We are born before our brains are fully grown and ‘wired up ’. During our long adolescence we build up internal models of the outside world and of the relations of parts of our bodies to it and to one another. Neurons that are present at birth spread their dendrites and project axons which acquire their myelin sheaths, and establish innumerable contacts with other neurons, over the years. New connections are formed; genetically endowed ones are stamped in or blanked off. People born without arms may grow up to use their toes in skills that are normally manual. Tobias, Darlington and others have stressed the enormous survival value of adaptive behaviour and the ‘positive feedback’ relation between biological and cultural evolution. The latter, the unique product of the unprecedentedly rapid biological evolution of big brains, advances on a time scale unknown to biological evolution.

scholarly journals When the Subaltern Took the Postcolonial Turn

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-147
Author(s):  
John Roosa
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Subaltern Studies ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Series Editor ◽  
South Asian History ◽  
Research Agendas ◽  
Asian History

Abstract This essay evaluates the changing research agendas of Subaltern Studies, an influential series of books on South Asian history that began in 1982. The essay criticizes the original research agenda as articulated by the series editor, Ranajit Guha, and the subsequent agenda proposed by several members of the Subaltern Studies collective. Guha initially proposed that studies of colonial India understand power in terms of unmediated relationships between “the elite” and “the subaltern” and endeavour to answer a counterfactual question on why the “Indian elite” did not come to represent the nation. The subsequent agenda first formulated in the late 1980s, while jettisoning Guha’s strict binaries and crude populism, has not led to any new insights into South Asian history. The turn towards the issues of modernity and postcolonialism has resulted in much commentary on what is already known. Some members of the collective, in the name of uncovering a distinctly “Indian modernity” and moving beyond Western categories, have reified the concept of modernity and restaged tired old debates within Western social theory.

Creating communities: the use of technology in craft and DIY communities of practice

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 277-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Holmes ◽  
Anita Greenhill ◽  
Rachel McLean
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to gain insight into craft and do-it-yourself (DIY) communities of practice (COPs) and how the use of technology provides ways for participants to connect, share and create. Gaining deeper insights into the practices of these communities may provide new opportunities to utilise within this flourishing domain. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative methods were adopted to collect data and analysed through an interpretivist lens. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of craft and DIY COPs to gain a deep understanding of the broader ethnographic study. Existing theoretical perspectives surrounding COPs have been applied to further current perspectives. Findings – Findings from this study suggest that being part of a COP allows participants to connect to others, build creative enterprise and learn or enhance skills. Insights gained from this study indicate some of the detailed ways in which the application of technology redefines craft and DIY COPs. Research limitations/implications – This study provides a succinct exploration of a vast and fluid domain; if presented with more time and wider resources, the research would include further exploration of virtual COPs. Originality/value – The investigation provides a rich insight into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) within craft and DIY COPs. The application of theoretical perspectives from the area of Information Systems (IS) and Technology Management to this domain is regarded as an original research and furthers knowledge in these areas. Originality/value – The investigation provides a rich insight into the use of ICTs within craft and DIY COPs. The application of theoretical perspectives from the area of IS to the domain of craft and DIY culture is original research and extends existing concepts to include skills sharing as a previously unexplored domain.

scholarly journals How culture and biology interact to shape language and the language faculty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenny Smith
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Evolutionary Models ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Repeated Cycle ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Precise Relationship

Recent work suggests that linguistic structure develops through cultural evolution, as a consequence of the repeated cycle of learning and use by which languages persist. This work has important implications for our understanding of the evolution of the cognitive basis for language: in particular, human language and the cognitive capacities underpinning it are likely to have been shaped by co-evolutionary processes, where the cultural evolution of linguistic systems is shaped by and in turn shapes the biological evolution of the capacities underpinning language learning. I review several models of this co-evolutionary process, which suggest that the precise relationship between evolved biases in individuals and the structure of linguistic systems depends on the extent to which cultural evolution masks or unmasks individual-level cognitive biases from selection. I finish by discussing how these co-evolutionary models might be extended to cases where the biases involved in learning are themselves shaped by experience, as is the case for language.

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.

On the Sigmoidal Law Relating Association Value (A) and Scaled Meaningfulness (M′)

1968 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clyde E. Noble ◽  
Patricia B. Sutker ◽  
Helen R. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Representative Sample ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Relative Number ◽  
Inductive Hypothesis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Average Error ◽  
Sigmoidal Function ◽  
Empirical Law ◽  
Range Of Values ◽  
Very High

This study was conducted to test an inductive hypothesis, based on judgments of the relative number of associations ( a′) evoked by 2100 CVC trigrams in 200 Montana college Ss, that association value ( a) is a sigmoidal function of scaled meaningfulness ( m′). Whereas the earlier investigation used a representative sample of only 21 CVCs to compute m′, we selected 500 stimuli from the full range of values and had them rated by 200 Georgia college Ss. Measures of reliability for the a′ scale ( r = .993) and of internal consistency for the m′ scale (average error = 2.8%) are again very high. The cross-cultural regressions for the a and m′ scales are both linear, with r ≥ .97 for mean scores grouped in 25 categories of 20 CVCs each. Confirming and extending Noble's 1957 and 1961 findings, the present function relating a and m′ is clearly S-shaped and may be regarded as an empirical law. The analysis-of-variance ( η2) test of curvilinearity, applied to 12 equidistant groupings using all 500 CVCs, is significant ( P < .001). Among the major implications are: (1) the contemporary m′ scale is superior to the classical a scale and its cognates, (2) the practice of treating these two variables as identical or even linearly related is erroneous, (3) continued equivocation about a and m′ in research on verbal behavior can lead to serious errors of prediction and faulty explanatory inferences.

Modeling Social Learning and Culture

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Hoppitt ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Reaction Diffusion ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Mathematical Expressions ◽  
Mathematical Techniques ◽  
Neutral Models

This chapter describes a variety of approaches to modeling social learning, cultural evolution, and gene-culture coevolution. The model-building exercise typically starts with a set of assumptions about the key processes to be explored, along with the nature of their relations. These assumptions are then translated into the mathematical expressions that constitute the model. The operation of the model is then investigated, normally using a combination of analytical mathematical techniques and simulation, to determine relevant outcomes, such as the equilibrium states or patterns of change over time. The chapter presents examples of the modeling of cultural transmission and considers parallels between cultural and biological evolution. It then discusses theoretical approaches to social learning and cultural evolution, including population-genetic style models of cultural evolution and gene-culture coevolution, neutral models and random copying, social foraging theory, spatially explicit models, reaction-diffusion models, agent-based models, and phylogenetic models.

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