scholarly journals Underappreciated similarities and differences between cultural and biological evolution, and the future of cultural evolution thinking

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Smolla ◽  
Fredrik Jansson ◽  
Laurent Lehmann ◽  
Wybo Houkes ◽  
Franz J Weissing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Cultural Systems

Cultural evolution theory has long been inspired by evolutionary biology. Conceptual analogies between biological and cultural evolution have led to the adoption of a range of formal theoretical approaches from population dynamics and genetics. However, this has resulted in a research programme with a strong focus on cultural transmission. Here, we contrast biological with cultural evolution, and highlight aspects of cultural evolution that have not received sufficient attention previously. We outline possible implications for evolutionary dynamics and argue that not taking them into account will limit our understanding of cultural systems. We provide suggestions for future research directions and discuss how this vibrant research field can embrace its multidisciplinary nature.

scholarly journals Underappreciated features of cultural evolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1828) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Smolla ◽  
Fredrik Jansson ◽  
Laurent Lehmann ◽  
Wybo Houkes ◽  
Franz J. Weissing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Combinatorial Properties ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Cultural Systems

Cultural evolution theory has long been inspired by evolutionary biology. Conceptual analogies between biological and cultural evolution have led to the adoption of a range of formal theoretical approaches from population dynamics and genetics. However, this has resulted in a research programme with a strong focus on cultural transmission. Here, we contrast biological with cultural evolution, and highlight aspects of cultural evolution that have not received sufficient attention previously. We outline possible implications for evolutionary dynamics and argue that not taking them into account will limit our understanding of cultural systems. We propose 12 key questions for future research, among which are calls to improve our understanding of the combinatorial properties of cultural innovation, and the role of development and life history in cultural dynamics. Finally, we discuss how this vibrant research field can make progress by embracing its multidisciplinary nature. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Foundations of cultural evolution’.

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.

Towards a unified science of cultural evolution

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Mesoudi ◽  
Andrew Whiten ◽  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Good Match ◽  
Social Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
The Social

We suggest that human culture exhibits key Darwinian evolutionary properties, and argue that the structure of a science of cultural evolution should share fundamental features with the structure of the science of biological evolution. This latter claim is tested by outlining the methods and approaches employed by the principal subdisciplines of evolutionary biology and assessing whether there is an existing or potential corresponding approach to the study of cultural evolution. Existing approaches within anthropology and archaeology demonstrate a good match with the macroevolutionary methods of systematics, paleobiology, and biogeography, whereas mathematical models derived from population genetics have been successfully developed to study cultural microevolution. Much potential exists for experimental simulations and field studies of cultural microevolution, where there are opportunities to borrow further methods and hypotheses from biology. Potential also exists for the cultural equivalent of molecular genetics in “social cognitive neuroscience,” although many fundamental issues have yet to be resolved. It is argued that studying culture within a unifying evolutionary framework has the potential to integrate a number of separate disciplines within the social sciences.

scholarly journals Internationalization of state-owned enterprises from emerging markets: Overview of theoretical approaches

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-255
Author(s):  
Daria S. Klishevich ◽  
◽  
Andrey Yu. Panibratov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
State Ownership ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Emerging Market Countries ◽  
International Strategies

The article presents the analysis of the theoretical and empirical research on the phenomenon of the internationalization of state-owned enterprises from emerging market countries. Contemporary internationalized state-owned enterprises are far from the uncompetitive and ineffective firms of the 20th century that mostly operated domestically and give examples of truly exciting international strategies. However the question stays open, namely how exactly state ownership shapes their international strategies. The existing studies are vast and lack systematization, and the purpose of this article is to analyze the most widely used theoretical approaches that investigate internationalization of emerging markets of stateowned enterprises. The most popular theoretical approach to study the internationalization of emerging markets of state-owned enterprises is the institutional perspective that studies how the interplay of state ownership of companies and institutional environment shapes their international strategies. Nevertheless, the synergy of theoretical approaches is needed in order to extend knowledge on the internationalization of the state-owned enterprises. Examples of such a synergy are presented in this paper. It also offers prospects for future research and further topics to study. Analysis of theoretical approaches that study internationalization of emerging markets of state-owned enterprises helps map the research field and show where it is moving. The paper has value for both academia and practitioners that deal with the global expansion of state-owned enterprises from emerging markets.

Cultural Evolution in Animals

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Whiten
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Controlled Experiments ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Invertebrate Species ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Cumulative Cultural Evolution

In recent decades, a burgeoning literature has documented the cultural transmission of behavior through social learning in numerous vertebrate and invertebrate species. One meaning of “cultural evolution in animals” refers to these discoveries, and I present an overview of key findings. I then address the other meaning of the term focused on cultural changes within a lineage. Such changes in humans, described as “cumulative cultural evolution,” have been spectacular, but relatively little attention has yet been paid to the topic in nonhuman animals, other than asserting that the process is unique to humans. A variety of evidence including both controlled experiments and field observations has begun to challenge this view, and in some behavioral domains, notably birdsong, cultural evolution has been studied for many years. In this review, I dissect concepts of cultural evolution and cumulative culture and appraise the accumulating evidence bearing on their nature and significance for evolutionary biology at large.

The Context of Terrorism for Managing People in Multinational Enterprises

2021 ◽  
pp. 133-155
Author(s):  
Benjamin Bader ◽  
Carol Reade
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Stress Theory ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
As Stress ◽  
The Individual

A number of research studies have been published in recent years dealing with the implications of terrorism for human resource management (HRM)–related issues, mostly at the individual level. Different theoretical perspectives have been utilized, such as stress theory, social identity theory, and social support theory, and the respective studies have contributed to our knowledge in this important research field. Nonetheless, a comprehensive theoretical approach at the organizational level relevant to HRM in the context of terrorism is lacking. To address this shortcoming, this chapter examines extant literature on the influence of terrorism on HRM-related issues, integrates several theoretical approaches that emerge from this literature, and introduces an HRM terrorism-response theory relevant for companies operating in countries afflicted with terrorism. Avenues for future research are discussed and practical implications are derived.

COMPLEX SYSTEMS IN LANGUAGE EVOLUTION: THE CULTURAL EMERGENCE OF COMPOSITIONAL STRUCTURE

2003 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. 537-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
KENNY SMITH ◽  
HENRY BRIGHTON ◽  
SIMON KIRBY
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Compositional Structure ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Iterated Learning

Language arises from the interaction of three complex adaptive systems — biological evolution, learning, and culture. We focus here on cultural evolution, and present an Iterated Learning Model of the emergence of compositionality, a fundamental structural property of language. Our main result is to show that the poverty of the stimulus available to language learners leads to a pressure for linguistic structure. When there is a bottleneck on cultural transmission, only a language which is generalizable from sparse input data is stable. Language itself evolves on a cultural time-scale, and compositionality is language's adaptation to stimulus poverty.

scholarly journals Music as a coevolved system for social bonding

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick E. Savage ◽  
Psyche Loui ◽  
Bronwyn Tarr ◽  
Adena Schachner ◽  
Luke Glowacki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Mate Selection ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Unified Framework ◽  
Physiological Mechanisms ◽  
Feedback Effects ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Evolution Of Music

Why do humans make music? Theories of the evolution of musicality have focused mainly on the value of music for specific adaptive contexts such as mate selection, parental care, coalition signaling, and group cohesion. Synthesizing and extending previous proposals, we argue that social bonding is an overarching function that unifies all of these theories, and that musicality enabled social bonding at larger scales than grooming and other bonding mechanisms available in ancestral primate societies. We combine cross-disciplinary evidence from archaeology, anthropology, biology, musicology, psychology, and neuroscience into a unified framework that accounts for the biological and cultural evolution of music. We argue that the evolution of musicality involves gene-culture coevolution, through which proto-musical behaviors that initially arose and spread as cultural inventions had feedback effects on biological evolution due to their impact on social bonding. We emphasize the deep links between production, perception, prediction, and social reward arising from repetition, synchronization, and harmonization of rhythms and pitches, and summarize empirical evidence for these links at the levels of brain networks, physiological mechanisms, and behaviors across cultures and across species. Finally, we address potential criticisms and make testable predictions for future research, including neurobiological bases of musicality and relationships between human music, language, animal song, and other domains. The music and social bonding (MSB) hypothesis provides the most comprehensive theory to date of the biological and cultural evolution of music.

scholarly journals Analysing the Diversification of Cultural Variants using Longitudinal Richness Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Gjesfjeld ◽  
Enrico R. Crema ◽  
Anne Kandler
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Diversification Rate ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Time Averaging ◽  
Rate Analysis ◽  
Transmission Modes ◽  
Cultural Data

One of the most significant challenges for cultural evolution is the inference of macroevolutionary patterns from historical and archaeological sources of cultural data. Here, we examine the utility of diversification rate analysis for observing trends in the mode and tempo of cultural evolution using simulated cultural data sets. We explore a range of scenarios in which transmission modes, population size, and innovation rates change over time and generate population-frequency data. From this data, we extract longitudinal richness and further reduce its completeness through time-averaging and random sampling. Given that perfect population-level frequencies can rarely be assumed or even approximated from historical data, these simulated scenarios provide the grounds for exploring the inferential power of longitudinal richness data. Results suggest that diversification rate analysis can identify profiles of underlying changes in population size, innovation rates, and cultural transmission. Furthermore, our results highlight a series of methodological outcomes that can be used to enhance future research into the dynamic patterns of cultural evolution.

scholarly journals Evolution of Speech

2018 ◽  
pp. 840-864
Author(s):  
Bart de Boer ◽  
Tessa Verhoef
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Evolutionary Time ◽  
Anatomical Structures ◽  
Evolution Of Speech ◽  
Anatomical Adaptations ◽  
Cognition And Culture

This chapter discusses the biological and cultural evolution of speech. It presents fossil and comparative evidence about how anatomical structures may have adapted to speech over evolutionary time and how this can help estimate when speech evolved. It also discusses how cultural transmission shapes systems of speech sounds, and how this is important to understand the biological evolution of cognitive adaptations to learning and using speech. It discusses experimental techniques to investigate cultural evolution of speech in a laboratory setting. From the evidence presented, it is likely that anatomical adaptations to complex vocal communication are at least as old as the latest common ancestor with Neanderthals (c 400 000 years ago), that cognitive adaptations are probably primary (and therefore even older than this), that cultural evolution is very important in shaping (systems of) speech sounds, and that therefore the evolution of speech was a complex co-evolution between anatomy, cognition, and culture.

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