Cultural Transmission and Evolution (MPB-16), Volume 16 : : A Quantitative Approach. (MPB-16) / / Marcus W. Feldman, Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
• VerfasserIn: Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca,; Feldman, Marcus W.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2020]; ©1981
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Monographs in Population Biology ; 93
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (388 p.)

A number of scholars have found that concepts such as mutation, selection, and random drift, which emerged from the theory of biological evolution, may also explain evolutionary phenomena in other disciplines as well. Drawing on these concepts, Professors Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman classify and systematize the various modes of transmitting "culture" and explore their consequences for cultural evolution. In the process, they develop a mathematical theory of the non-genetic transmission of cultural traits that provides a framework for future investigations in quantitative social and anthropological science.The authors use quantitative models that incorporate the various modes of transmission (for example, parent-child, peer-peer, and teacher-student), and evaluate data from sociology, archaeology, and epidemiology in terms of the models. They show that the various modes of transmission in conjunction with cultural and natural selection produce various rates of cultural evolution and various degrees of diversity within and between groups. The same framework can be used for explaining phenomena as apparently unrelated as linguistics, epidemics, social values and customs, and diffusion of innovations. The authors conclude that cultural transmission is an essential factor in the study of cultural change.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Preface -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- List of Symbols -- Contents -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Man as a cultural animal -- 1.2 The adaptiveness of behavior -- 1.3 Levels of learning -- 1.4 Innate and learned traits -- 1.5 Culture as the object of evolution -- 1.6 The measurement of selection in biology -- 1.7 Two levels of selection and two orders of organisms -- 1.8 Some examples from the evolution of languages -- 1.9 The diffusion of innovations -- 1.10 Epidemics -- 1.11 Cultural transmission -- 1.12 Transmission as a two-stage process -- 1.13 A summary of evolutionary factors in culture -- 1.14 Some caveats and problems -- 2. Vertical Transmission -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Vertical transmission -- 2.3 Special cases of vertical transmission -- 2.4 Correlations between relatives -- 2.5 Assortative mating -- 2.6 Natural selection -- 2.7 Mutation -- 2.8 Random-sampling drift -- 2.9 Drift and natural selection -- 2.10 Concluding remarks on vertical transmission -- 3. Oblique and Horizontal Transmission -- 3.1 Oblique transmission -- 3.2 Oblique and vertical transmission with natural selection -- 3.3 Sex-influenced transmission -- 3.4 Horizontal transmission -- 3.5 Sib-sib interactions -- 3.6 Migration between populations -- 3.7 Migration dependent on extent of separation -- 3.8 Population stratification -- 3.9 The recent demographic transition as an example of stratified, vertical and oblique or horizontal transmission in cultural change -- 3.10 Random sampling drift: Vertical and oblique transmission -- 3.11 A comparison of special schemes of transmission with random sampling drift: parents versus teachers -- 3.12 Kinetics of cultural change with oblique and horizontal transmission -- 3.13 Variation among populations -- 3.14 Correlation of cultural and biological variation -- 4. Multiple State Traits -- 4.1 Mendelian transmission as an example of a multiple state trait -- 4.2 Vertical transmission for three-state models -- 4.3 Numerical examples of multistate transmission -- 4.4 Assortative mating -- 4.5 Horizontal and oblique transmission -- 4.6 The evolution of surnames: An example of drift in multistate cultural transmission -- 5. Cultural Transmission for a Continuous Trait -- 5.1 Historical considerations on "blending" inheritance -- 5.2 Linear transmission -- 5.3 Correlations between relatives -- 5.4 Multivariate linear models -- 5.5 Social stratification, class, and caste -- 5.6 Natural selection, range attenuation, and their effects on the correlations between relatives -- 5.7 Mutation and cultural drift for continuous traits -- 5.8 Upper limits to individual variation under cultural drift -- 5.9 Variation between groups -- 5.10 Cultural selection versus cultural drift -- 5.11 Simple social hierarchies and compartments -- 5.12 Transmission matrices as models of vertical and oblique transmission: Teachers vs. parents -- 6. Epilogue -- 6.1 General considerations -- 6.2 Harmony and conflict of cultural and natural selection -- 6.3 Cultural transmission, communication, and cultural selection -- 6.4 Modes of transmission and their consequences for rates and equilibria under cultural evolution -- 6.5 Chance and purpose in cultural variation -- 6.6 Overlaps with other areas of study -- 6.7 Individual selection and group selection -- 6.8 Cultural activity as an extension of Darwinian fitness -- Bibliography -- Index