The Pleasures and Perils of Darwinizing Culture (with Phylogenies)

Gray, Russell D.; Greenhill, Simon J.; Ross, Robert M.

doi:10.1162/biot.2007.2.4.360

Cited by 155 publications

(129 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…[164][165][166][167], models of language evolution (e.g., refs. [168][169][170][171], empirically driven verbal models of human evolution based on patterns in material culture (e.g., refs. [172][173][174], and models of cultural dynamics within and between groups (e.g., refs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural evolutionary theory: How culture evolves and why it matters

Creanza

Kolodny

Feldman

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

315

203

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Human cultural traits-behaviors, ideas, and technologies that can be learned from other individuals-can exhibit complex patterns of transmission and evolution, and researchers have developed theoretical models, both verbal and mathematical, to facilitate our understanding of these patterns. Many of the first quantitative models of cultural evolution were modified from existing concepts in theoretical population genetics because cultural evolution has many parallels with, as well as clear differences from, genetic evolution. Furthermore, cultural and genetic evolution can interact with one another and influence both transmission and selection. This interaction requires theoretical treatments of gene-culture coevolution and dual inheritance, in addition to purely cultural evolution. In addition, cultural evolutionary theory is a natural component of studies in demography, human ecology, and many other disciplines. Here, we review the core concepts in cultural evolutionary theory as they pertain to the extension of biology through culture, focusing on cultural evolutionary applications in population genetics, ecology, and demography. For each of these disciplines, we review the theoretical literature and highlight relevant empirical studies. We also discuss the societal implications of the study of cultural evolution and of the interactions of humans with one another and with their environment. cultural evolution | mathematical models | gene-culture coevolution | niche construction | demography H uman culture encompasses ideas, behaviors, and artifacts that can be learned and transmitted between individuals and can change over time (1). This process of transmission and change is reminiscent of Darwin's principle of descent with modification through natural selection, and Darwin himself drew this explicit link in the case of languages: "The formation of different languages and of distinct species, and the proofs that both have been developed through a gradual process, are curiously parallel" (2, 3). Theory underpins most scientific endeavors, and, in the 1970s, researchers began to lay the groundwork for cultural evolutionary theory, building on the neo-Darwinian synthesis of genetics and evolution by using verbal, diagrammatic, and mathematical models (4-8). These models are, by necessity, approximations of reality (9), but because they require researchers to specify their assumptions and extract the most important features from complex processes, they have proven exceedingly useful in advancing the study of cultural evolution (10). Here, we review the field of cultural evolutionary theory as it pertains to the extension of biology through culture. We focus on human culture because the bulk of cultural evolutionary models are human-centric and certain processes such as cumulative culture seem to be unique to humans. However, numerous nonhuman species also exhibit cultural transmission, and we consider the areas of overlap between models of human and animal culture in Discussion.The study of cultural evolution is im...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural evolutionary theory: How culture evolves and why it matters

Creanza

Kolodny

Feldman

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

315

203

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“…Three factors are likely to be at work here. First, faster rates of cultural evolution could increase the likelihood of between-population differences arising [3]-although this also increases within-population variation. Second, the ethnolinguistic barrier effect we identify suggests that content-and/or context-dependent cultural transmission biases [33] are acting to limit information flow across group borders, suppress internal variation and/or accentuate group differences.…”

Section: (C) Ethnolinguistic Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population structure and cultural geography of a folktale in Europe

2013

Self Cite

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Despite a burgeoning science of cultural evolution, relatively little work has focused on the population structure of human cultural variation. By contrast, studies in human population genetics use a suite of tools to quantify and analyse spatial and temporal patterns of genetic variation within and between populations. Human genetic diversity can be explained largely as a result of migration and drift giving rise to gradual genetic clines, together with some discontinuities arising from geographical and cultural barriers to gene flow. Here, we adapt theory and methods from population genetics to quantify the influence of geography and ethnolinguistic boundaries on the distribution of 700 variants of a folktale in 31 European ethnolinguistic populations. We find that geographical distance and ethnolinguistic affiliation exert significant independent effects on folktale diversity and that variation between populations supports a clustering concordant with European geography. This pattern of geographical clines and clusters parallels the pattern of human genetic diversity in Europe, although the effects of geographical distance and ethnolinguistic boundaries are stronger for folktales than genes. Our findings highlight the importance of geography and population boundaries in models of human cultural variation and point to key similarities and differences between evolutionary processes operating on human genes and culture.

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“…Hurles et al 2003;Gray et al 2007). Gray et al (2007) note that horizontal transmission can be investigated using techniques such as NeighborNet (Bryant & Moulton 2004), and that incongruent transmission histories for different traits or suites of traits can be investigated using Bayesian multiple topology mixture models (Pagel & Meade 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic analyses of Lapita decoration do not support branching evolution or regional population structure during colonization of Remote Oceania

Cochrane

Lipo

2010

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Intricately decorated Lapita pottery (3100-2700 BP) was made and deposited by the prehistoric colonizers of Pacific islands, east of the main Solomon's chain. For decades, analyses of this pottery have focused on the ancestor-descendant relationships of populations and the relative degree of interaction across the region to explain similarities in Lapita decoration. Cladistic analyses, increasingly used to examine the evolutionary relationships of material culture assemblages, have not been conducted on Lapita artefacts. Here, we present the first cladistic analysis of Lapita pottery and note the difficulties in using cladistics to investigate datasets where a high degree of horizontal transmission and non-branching evolution may explain observed variation. We additionally present NeighborNet and phenetic distance network analyses to generate hypotheses that may account for Lapita decorative similarity.

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The Pleasures and Perils of Darwinizing Culture (with Phylogenies)

Cited by 155 publications

References 71 publications

Cultural evolutionary theory: How culture evolves and why it matters

Cultural evolutionary theory: How culture evolves and why it matters

Population structure and cultural geography of a folktale in Europe

Phylogenetic analyses of Lapita decoration do not support branching evolution or regional population structure during colonization of Remote Oceania

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