anthropological methodology
archaeological data analysis
austronesian
Bantu Languages
Basketry Traditions
Branch Lengths
Category=CFF
Category=JHMC
Category=NK
Category=PSAJ
Cladistic Analyses
comparative
comparative linguistics
Cultural Evolutionary Processes
cultural transmission models
Descent Rules
eq_bestseller
eq_dictionaries-language-reference
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
eq_society-politics
Ethno Linguistic Groups
evolutionary anthropology
Express Train
horizontal
Horizontal Transmission
human behavioral diversity
language
languages
Lapita Culture
Log Linear Analysis
Material Culture Types
Maximum Parsimony
Maximum Parsimony Tree
methods
NW Group
Papuan Languages
PC Axe
phylogenetic
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods
Phylogenetic Signals
Phylogenetic Trees
Phylogenetic Uncertainty
Posterior Distribution
Posterior Probability
Posterior Probability Distribution
quantitative cultural evolution research
transmission
tree
trees
West Bantu
Product details
- ISBN 9781598742169
- Weight: 453g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 31 May 2005
- Publisher: Left Coast Press Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Virtually all aspects of human behavior show enormous variation both within and between cultural groups, including material culture, social organization and language. Thousands of distinct cultural groups exist: about 6,000 languages are spoken today, and it is thought that a far greater number of languages existed in the past but became extinct. Using a Darwinian approach, this book seeks to explain this rich cultural variation. There are a number of theoretical reasons to believe that cultural diversification might be tree-like, that is phylogenetic: material and non-material culture is clearly inherited by descendants, there is descent with modification, and languages appear to be hierarchically related. There are also a number of theoretical reasons to believe that cultural evolution is not tree-like: cultural inheritance is not Mendelian and can indeed be vertical, horizontal or oblique, evidence of borrowing abounds, cultures are not necessarily biological populations and can be transient and complex. Here, for the first time, this title tackles these questions of cultural evolution empirically and quantitatively, using a range of case studies from Africa, the Pacific, Europe, Asia and America. A range of powerful theoretical tools developed in evolutionary biology is used to test detailed hypotheses about historical patterns and adaptive functions in cultural evolution. Evidence is amassed from archaeological, linguist and cultural datasets, from both recent and historical or pre-historical time periods. A unifying theme is that the phylogenetic approach is a useful and powerful framework, both for describing the evolutionary history of these traits, and also for testing adaptive hypotheses about their evolution and co-evolution. Contributors include archaeologists, anthropologists, evolutionary biologists and linguists, and this book will be of great interest to all those involved in these areas.
Ruth Mace, Clare J Holden, Stephen Shennan
