Reconstructing social networks of Late Glacial and Holocene hunter–gatherers to understand cultural evolution

Abstract

Culture is increasingly being framed as a driver of human phenotypes and behaviour. Yet very little is known about variations in the patterns of past social interactions between humans in cultural evolution. The archaeological record, combined with modern evolutionary and analytical approaches, provides a unique opportunity to investigate broad-scale patterns of cultural change. Prompted by evidence that a population's social connectivity influences cultural variability, in this article, we revisit traditional approaches used to infer cultural evolutionary processes from the archaeological data. We then propose that frameworks considering multi-scalar interactions (from individuals to populations) over time and space have the potential to advance knowledge in cultural evolutionary theory. We describe how social network analysis can be applied to analyse diachronic structural changes and test cultural transmission hypotheses using the archaeological record (here specifically from the Marine Isotope Stage 3 ca 57–29 ka onwards). We argue that the reconstruction of prehistoric networks offers a timely opportunity to test the interplay between social connectivity and culture and ultimately helps to disentangle evolutionary mechanisms in the archaeological record. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines’.

The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines

“…In turn, Romano et al . [ 161 ] use the advances in understanding derived from studies of contemporary humans outlined above as a lens with which to interpret the ancient past of our species. In this they focus on the past approximately 60 ka, a period over which the archaeological record has become rich, tracing the evolution of human technologies.…”

Collective minds: social network topology shapes collective cognition

“…Unlike herds and swarms, human communities comprise social networks with diverse structures. A number of papers in the present special issue focus on cumulative cultural evolution and the structure of populations as the origins of moving from foraging to collective intelligence, while others shed light on the social networks of hunter–gatherers to understand cultural evolution (see [ 59 , 60 ]; as well as [ 61 ]). While the burgeoning research on social learning across the species points at cultural evolution and collective knowledge (see Garland et al .…”

Evidence of Specialized Resource Exploitation by Modern Humans in Western Iberia Associated to Pleistocene and Holocene Extreme Environmental Conditions

“…A host of different types of data consistently show that the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene were marked by an environmental instability, which was followed by a response from human ecodynamics. Aside from the changes in the tool kits, the greater exploitation of specific resources at given times leads to sites with specialized functions but, since the landscape was constantly changing, the functions of some sites may have also changed over time, based on the resources exploited at each time (Bahn, 1982;Bailey and Davidson, 1983;Brysbaert, 2014;Romano et al, 2022;Shydlovskyi, 2018). The data obtained from Poço Rock shelter, despite the limited number of radiocarbon results, suggest that the occupations occurred during harsh climatic events of global impact occurring during the LGM and the Holocene (Fig.…”

“…As a result, human cultures are broadly chronologically placed between marked climatic shifts (Banks et al, 2019). At local scales, since the landscape was constantly changing, the functions of some sites may also change over time, based on the resources exploited in each settlement at certain times (Bahn, 1982;Bailey and Davidson, 1983;Brysbaert, 2014;Romano et al, 2022;Shydlovskyi, 2018).…”