Correction to: ‘Greater wealth inequality, less polygyny: rethinking the polygyny threshold model’

Ross, Cody T.; Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff; Oh, Seung Yun; Bowles, Samuel; Beheim, Bret; Bunce, John Andrew; Caudell, Mark A.; Clark, Gregory; Colleran, Heidi; Cortez, Carmen; Draper, Patricia; Greaves, Russell D.; Gurven, Michael; Headland, Thomas N.; Headland, Janet; Hill, Kim; Hewlett, Barry S.; Kaplan, Hillard; Koster, Jeremy; Kramer, Karen L.; Marlowe, Frank W.; McElreath, Richard; Nolin, David A.; Quinlan, Marsha B.; Quinlan, Robert J.; Revilla‐Minaya, Caissa; Scelza, Brooke A.; Schacht, Ryan; Shenk, Mary K.; Uehara, Ray; Voland, Eckart; Willführ, Kai P.; Winterhalder, Bruce; Ziker, John P.

doi:10.1098/rsif.2018.0752

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Over time, various models were proposed in an attempt to explain the formation of human groups with low intra-group and high inter-group cultural variance (Axelrod, 1997 ; Creanza & Feldman, 2014 ; Turner & Smaldino, 2018 ). Most of these models rely on concepts of conformity or the notion of discrete ethnic markers (Ross et al, 2018 ). The model presented here works with probability density functions and continuous culture space.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How subcultures emerge

2023

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Sympatric speciation is typically presented as a rare phenomenon, but urban subcultures frequently emerge even in absence of geographic isolation. Is there perhaps something that culture has but biological inheritance does not that would account for this difference? We present a novel model that combines assortative interaction and multidimensional inheritance. Our computer simulations show that assortment alone can lead to the formation of cohesive clusters of individuals with low within-group and large between-group variability even in absence of a spatial separation or disruptive natural selection. All it takes is a proportionality between the variance of inputs (cultural ‘parents’) and outputs (cultural ‘offspring’). We argue that variability-dependent inheritance cannot be easily accomplished by genes alone, but it may be the norm, not the exception, in the transmission of culture between humans. This model explains the frequent emergence of subcultures and behavioural clustering in our species and possibly also other cultural animals.

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