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Cultural transmission of traditional songs in the Ryukyu Archipelago. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0270354. [PMID: 35749479 PMCID: PMC9231793 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2021] [Accepted: 06/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Geographic patterns of cultural variations are affected by how cultural traits are transmitted within and between populations. It has been argued that cultural traits are transmitted in different manners depending on their characteristics; for example, words for basic concepts are less liable to horizontal transmission between populations (i.e., borrowing) than other words. Here we examine the geographic variation of traditional songs in the Ryukyu Archipelago, southwestern islands of Japan, to explore cultural evolution of music with a focus on different social contexts in which songs are sung. Published scores of 1,342 traditional songs are coded using the CantoCore song classification scheme and distances between the songs are calculated from the codings. Neighbor-Net graphs of regions/islands are generated on the basis of the musical distances, and delta scores are obtained to examine the treelikeness of the networks. We also perform analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) to evaluate the extent of musical diversification among regions/islands. Our results suggest that horizontal transmission between populations has played a greater role in the formation of musical diversity than that of linguistic diversity in the Ryukyu Archipelago and that the social context in which songs are sung has an effect on how they are transmitted within and between populations. In addition, we compare the observed patterns of song diversity among regions/islands with those of lexical and mitochondrial-DNA (mtDNA) diversity, showing that the variation of songs sung in the "work" context are associated with the linguistic variation, whereas no association is found between the musical and genetic variation.
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2
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Youngblood M, Baraghith K, Savage PE. Phylogenetic reconstruction of the cultural evolution of electronic music via dynamic community detection (1975–1999). EVOL HUM BEHAV 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.06.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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3
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Lukas D, Towner M, Borgerhoff Mulder M. The potential to infer the historical pattern of cultural macroevolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200057. [PMID: 33993769 PMCID: PMC8126461 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Phylogenetic analyses increasingly take centre-stage in our understanding of the processes shaping patterns of cultural diversity and cultural evolution over time. Just as biologists explain the origins and maintenance of trait differences among organisms using phylogenetic methods, so anthropologists studying cultural macroevolutionary processes use phylogenetic methods to uncover the history of human populations and the dynamics of culturally transmitted traits. In this paper, we revisit concerns with the validity of these methods. Specifically, we use simulations to reveal how properties of the sample (size, missing data), properties of the tree (shape) and properties of the traits (rate of change, number of variants, transmission mode) might influence the inferences that can be drawn about trait distributions across a given phylogeny and the power to discern alternative histories. Our approach shows that in two example datasets specific combinations of properties of the sample, of the tree and of the trait can lead to potentially high rates of Type I and Type II errors. We offer this simulation tool to help assess the potential impact of this list of persistent perils in future cultural macroevolutionary work. This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dieter Lukas
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Mary Towner
- Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
| | - Monique Borgerhoff Mulder
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
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4
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Evans CL, Greenhill SJ, Watts J, List JM, Botero CA, Gray RD, Kirby KR. The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200056. [PMID: 33993767 PMCID: PMC8126464 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Modern phylogenetic methods are increasingly being used to address questions about macro-level patterns in cultural evolution. These methods can illuminate the unobservable histories of cultural traits and identify the evolutionary drivers of trait change over time, but their application is not without pitfalls. Here, we outline the current scope of research in cultural tree thinking, highlighting a toolkit of best practices to navigate and avoid the pitfalls and 'abuses' associated with their application. We emphasize two principles that support the appropriate application of phylogenetic methodologies in cross-cultural research: researchers should (1) draw on multiple lines of evidence when deciding if and which types of phylogenetic methods and models are suitable for their cross-cultural data, and (2) carefully consider how different cultural traits might have different evolutionary histories across space and time. When used appropriately phylogenetic methods can provide powerful insights into the processes of evolutionary change that have shaped the broad patterns of human history. This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cara L. Evans
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
| | - Simon J. Greenhill
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra 2700, Australia
| | - Joseph Watts
- Religion Programme, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
- Centre for Research on Evolution, Belief and Behaviour, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
| | - Johann-Mattis List
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
| | - Carlos A. Botero
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - Russell D. Gray
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
| | - Kathryn R. Kirby
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3B2
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Caicoya AL, Amici F, Ensenyat C, Colell M. Comparative cognition in three understudied ungulate species: European bison, forest buffalos and giraffes. Front Zool 2021; 18:30. [PMID: 34158081 PMCID: PMC8218502 DOI: 10.1186/s12983-021-00417-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 04/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Comparative cognition has historically focused on a few taxa such as primates, birds or rodents. However, a broader perspective is essential to understand how different selective pressures affect cognition in different taxa, as more recently shown in several studies. Here we present the same battery of cognitive tasks to two understudied ungulate species with different socio-ecological characteristics, European bison (Bison bonasus) and forest buffalos (Syncerus caffer nanus), and we compare their performance to previous findings in giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis). We presented subjects with an Object permanence task, Memory tasks with 30 and 60 s delays, two inference tasks based on acoustic cues (i.e. Acoustic inference tasks) and a control task to check for the use of olfactory cues (i.e. Olfactory task). Results Overall, giraffes outperformed bison and buffalos, and bison outperformed buffalos (that performed at chance level). All species performed better in the Object permanence task than in the Memory tasks and one of the Acoustic inference tasks (which they likely solved by relying on stimulus enhancement). Giraffes performed better than buffalos in the Shake full Acoustic inference task, but worse than bison and buffalos in the Shake empty Acoustic inference task. Conclusions In sum, our results are in line with the hypothesis that specific socio-ecological characteristics played a crucial role in the evolution of cognition, and that higher fission-fusion levels and larger dietary breadth are linked to higher cognitive skills. This study shows that ungulates may be an excellent model to test evolutionary hypotheses on the emergence of cognition. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12983-021-00417-w.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alvaro Lopez Caicoya
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. .,Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Federica Amici
- Behavioral Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Research Group Primate Behavioural Ecology, Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Montserrat Colell
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.,Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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Fisler M, Crémière C, Darlu P, Lecointre G. The treeness of the tree of historical trees of life. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0226567. [PMID: 31940355 PMCID: PMC6961905 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2019] [Accepted: 11/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
This paper compares and categorizes historical ideas about trees showing relationships among biological entities. The hierarchical structure of a tree is used to test the global consistency of similarities among these ideas; in other words we assess the "treeness" of the tree of historical trees. The collected data are figures and ideas about trees showing relationships among biological entities published or drawn by naturalists from 1555 to 2012. They are coded into a matrix of 235 historical trees and 141 descriptive attributes. From the most parsimonious "tree" of historical trees, treeness is measured by consistency index, retention index and homoplasy excess ratio. This tree is used to create sets or categories of trees, or to study the circulation of ideas. From an unrooted network of historical trees, treeness is measured by the delta-score. This unrooted network is used to measure and visualize treeness. The two approaches show a rather good treeness of the data, with respectively a retention idex of 0.83 and homoplasy excess ratio of 0.74, on one hand, and a delta-score of 0.26 on the other hand. It is interpreted as due to vertical transmission, i.e. an inheritance of shared ideas about biological trees among authors. This tree of trees is then used to test categories previously made. For instance, cladists and gradists are « paraphyletic ». The branches of this tree of trees suggest new categories of tree-thinkers that could have been overlooked by historians or systematists.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Fisler
- UMR 7205 CNRS-MNHN-SU-EPHE « Institut de Systématique, Evolution et Biodiversité », département « Origines & Évolution », Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
| | - Cédric Crémière
- Musée d’Histoire Naturelle du Havre, Place du vieux marché, Le Havre, France
| | - Pierre Darlu
- UMR 7206 CNRS-MNHN-UPD « Eco-anthropologie et Ethnobiologie », département « Hommes, Nature et Sociétés », Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
| | - Guillaume Lecointre
- UMR 7205 CNRS-MNHN-SU-EPHE « Institut de Systématique, Evolution et Biodiversité », département « Origines & Évolution », Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
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Nakamura M, Wakano JY, Aoki K, Kobayashi Y. The popularity spectrum applied to a cross-cultural question. Theor Popul Biol 2019; 133:104-116. [PMID: 31672615 DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2019.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2019] [Revised: 09/13/2019] [Accepted: 10/21/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
We investigate a new approach for identifying the contribution of horizontal transmission between groups to cross-cultural similarity. This method can be applied to datasets that record the presence or absence of artefacts, or attributes thereof, in archaeological and ethnographic assemblages, from which popularity spectra can be constructed. Based on analytical and simulation models, we show that the form of such spectra is sensitive to horizontal transmission between groups. We then fit the analytical model to existing datasets by Bayesian MCMC and obtain evidence for strong horizontal transmission in oceanic as opposed to continental datasets. We check the validity of our statistical method by using individual-based models, and show that the vertical transmission rate tends to be underestimated if the datasets are obtained from lattice-structured rather than island-structured meta-populations. We also suggest that there may be more borrowing of functional than stylistic traits, although the evidence for this is currently ambiguous.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mitsuhiro Nakamura
- Organization for the Strategic Coordination of Research and Intellectual Properties, Meiji University, Nakano 4-21-1, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8525, Japan
| | - Joe Yuichiro Wakano
- School of Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, Meiji University, Nakano 4-21-1, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8525, Japan
| | - Kenichi Aoki
- Organization for the Strategic Coordination of Research and Intellectual Properties, Meiji University, Nakano 4-21-1, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8525, Japan
| | - Yutaka Kobayashi
- School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology, 2-22 Eikokuji, Kochi City, Kochi 780-8515, Japan.
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8
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Bromham L, Hua X, Cardillo M, Schneemann H, Greenhill SJ. Parasites and politics: why cross-cultural studies must control for relatedness, proximity and covariation. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2018; 5:181100. [PMID: 30225088 PMCID: PMC6124128 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2018] [Accepted: 07/20/2018] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
A growing number of studies seek to identify predictors of broad-scale patterns in human cultural diversity, but three sources of non-independence in human cultural variables can bias the results of cross-cultural studies. First, related cultures tend to have many traits in common, regardless of whether those traits are functionally linked. Second, societies in geographical proximity will share many aspects of culture, environment and demography. Third, many cultural traits covary, leading to spurious relationships between traits. Here, we demonstrate tractable methods for dealing with all three sources of bias. We use cross-cultural analyses of proposed associations between human cultural traits and parasite load to illustrate the potential problems of failing to correct for these three forms of statistical non-independence. Associations between parasite stress and sociosexuality, authoritarianism, democracy and language diversity are weak or absent once relatedness and proximity are taken into account, and parasite load has no more power to explain variation in traditionalism, religiosity and collectivism than other measures of biodiversity, climate or population size do. Without correction for statistical non-independence and covariation in cross-cultural analyses, we risk misinterpreting associations between culture and environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindell Bromham
- Macroevolution and Macroecology, Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia
| | - Xia Hua
- Macroevolution and Macroecology, Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia
| | - Marcel Cardillo
- Macroevolution and Macroecology, Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia
| | - Hilde Schneemann
- Macroevolution and Macroecology, Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia
- Erasmus Mundus Master in Evolutionary Biology (MEME), Place E. Bataillon, Montpellier 34095, France
| | - Simon J. Greenhill
- ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, Jena 07743, Germany
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9
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Le Bomin S, Lecointre G, Heyer E. The Evolution of Musical Diversity: The Key Role of Vertical Transmission. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0151570. [PMID: 27027305 PMCID: PMC4814106 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2015] [Accepted: 03/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Music, like languages, is one of the key components of our culture, yet musical evolution is still poorly known. Numerous studies using computational methods derived from evolutionary biology have been successfully applied to varied subset of linguistic data. One of the major drawback regarding musical studies is the lack of suitable coded musical data that can be analysed using such evolutionary tools. Here we present for the first time an original set of musical data coded in a way that enables construction of trees classically used in evolutionary approaches. Using phylogenetic methods, we test two competing theories on musical evolution: vertical versus horizontal transmission. We show that, contrary to what is currently believed, vertical transmission plays a key role in shaping musical diversity. The signal of vertical transmission is particularly strong for intrinsic musical characters such as metrics, rhythm, and melody. Our findings reveal some of the evolutionary mechanisms at play for explaining musical diversity and open a new field of investigation in musical evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sylvie Le Bomin
- Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie, UMR 7206 CNRS, MNHN, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Universités, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France
- * E-mail:
| | - Guillaume Lecointre
- Department “Systématique et Evolution”, UMR 7205 CNRS-MNHN-UPMC-EPHE “Institut de Systématique, Evolution et Biodiversité”, Sorbonne Université, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France
| | - Evelyne Heyer
- Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie, UMR 7206 CNRS, MNHN, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Universités, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France
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10
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Leonti M, Staub PO, Cabras S, Castellanos ME, Casu L. From cumulative cultural transmission to evidence-based medicine: evolution of medicinal plant knowledge in Southern Italy. Front Pharmacol 2015; 6:207. [PMID: 26483686 PMCID: PMC4588697 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2015.00207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2015] [Accepted: 09/07/2015] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
In Mediterranean cultures written records of medicinal plant use have a long tradition. This written record contributed to building a consensus about what was perceived to be an efficacious pharmacopeia. Passed down through millennia, these scripts have transmitted knowledge about plant uses, with high fidelity, to scholars and laypersons alike. Herbal medicine's importance and the long-standing written record call for a better understanding of the mechanisms influencing the transmission of contemporary medicinal plant knowledge. Here we contextualize herbal medicine within evolutionary medicine and cultural evolution. Cumulative knowledge transmission is approached by estimating the causal effect of two seminal scripts about materia medica written by Dioscorides and Galen, two classical Greco-Roman physicians, on today's medicinal plant use in the Southern Italian regions of Campania, Sardinia, and Sicily. Plant-use combinations are treated as transmissible cultural traits (or “memes”), which in analogy to the biological evolution of genetic traits, are subjected to mutation and selection. Our results suggest that until today ancient scripts have exerted a strong influence on the use of herbal medicine. We conclude that the repeated empirical testing and scientific study of health care claims is guiding and shaping the selection of efficacious treatments and evidence-based herbal medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Leonti
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari Cagliari, Italy
| | - Peter O Staub
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari Cagliari, Italy
| | - Stefano Cabras
- Department of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Cagliari Cagliari, Italy ; Department of Statistics, Carlos III University of Madrid Getafe, Spain
| | | | - Laura Casu
- Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Cagliari Cagliari, Italy
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Abstract
Researchers have long been fascinated by the strong continuities evident in the oral traditions associated with different cultures. According to the 'historic-geographic' school, it is possible to classify similar tales into "international types" and trace them back to their original archetypes. However, critics argue that folktale traditions are fundamentally fluid, and that most international types are artificial constructs. Here, these issues are addressed using phylogenetic methods that were originally developed to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among biological species, and which have been recently applied to a range of cultural phenomena. The study focuses on one of the most debated international types in the literature: ATU 333, 'Little Red Riding Hood'. A number of variants of ATU 333 have been recorded in European oral traditions, and it has been suggested that the group may include tales from other regions, including Africa and East Asia. However, in many of these cases, it is difficult to differentiate ATU 333 from another widespread international folktale, ATU 123, 'The Wolf and the Kids'. To shed more light on these relationships, data on 58 folktales were analysed using cladistic, Bayesian and phylogenetic network-based methods. The results demonstrate that, contrary to the claims made by critics of the historic-geographic approach, it is possible to identify ATU 333 and ATU 123 as distinct international types. They further suggest that most of the African tales can be classified as variants of ATU 123, while the East Asian tales probably evolved by blending together elements of both ATU 333 and ATU 123. These findings demonstrate that phylogenetic methods provide a powerful set of tools for testing hypotheses about cross-cultural relationships among folktales, and point towards exciting new directions for research into the transmission and evolution of oral narratives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jamshid J. Tehrani
- Department of Anthropology and Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture, Durham University, Science Site, South Road, Durham, United Kingdom
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12
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O’Brien MJ, Collard M, Buchanan B, Boulanger MT. Trees, thickets, or something in between? Recent theoretical and empirical work in cultural phylogeny. Isr J Ecol Evol 2013. [DOI: 10.1080/15659801.2013.825431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Anthropology has always had as one of its goals the explanation of human cultural diversity across space and through time. Over the past several decades, there has been a growing appreciation among anthropologists and other social scientists that the phylogenetic approaches that biologists have developed to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of species are useful tools for building and explaining patterns of human diversity. Phylogenetic methods offer a means of creating testable propositions of heritable continuity – how one thing is related to another in terms of descent. Such methods have now been applied to a wide range of cultural phenomena, including languages, projectile points, textiles, marital customs, and political organization. Here we discuss several cultural phylogenies and demonstrate how they were used to address long-standing anthropological issues. Even keeping in mind that phylogenetic trees are nothing more than hypotheses about evolutionary relationships, some researchers have argued that when it comes to cultural behaviors and their products, tree building is theoretically unwarranted. We examine the issues that critics raise and find that they in no way sound the death knell for cultural phylogenetic work.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mark Collard
- Human Evolutionary Studies Program and Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University
| | - Briggs Buchanan
- Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri
- Human Evolutionary Studies Program and Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University
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13
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Dediu D, Cysouw M. Some structural aspects of language are more stable than others: a comparison of seven methods. PLoS One 2013; 8:e55009. [PMID: 23383035 PMCID: PMC3557264 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2012] [Accepted: 12/18/2012] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding the patterns and causes of differential structural stability is an area of major interest for the study of language change and evolution. It is still debated whether structural features have intrinsic stabilities across language families and geographic areas, or if the processes governing their rate of change are completely dependent upon the specific context of a given language or language family. We conducted an extensive literature review and selected seven different approaches to conceptualising and estimating the stability of structural linguistic features, aiming at comparing them using the same dataset, the World Atlas of Language Structures. We found that, despite profound conceptual and empirical differences between these methods, they tend to agree in classifying some structural linguistic features as being more stable than others. This suggests that there are intrinsic properties of such structural features influencing their stability across methods, language families and geographic areas. This finding is a major step towards understanding the nature of structural linguistic features and their interaction with idiosyncratic, lineage- and area-specific factors during language change and evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan Dediu
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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14
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Matthews LJ. The recognition signal hypothesis for the adaptive evolution of religion : a phylogenetic test with Christian denominations. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2012; 23:218-49. [PMID: 22623139 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-012-9138-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Recent research on the evolution of religion has focused on whether religion is an unselected by-product of evolutionary processes or if it is instead an adaptation by natural selection. Adaptive hypotheses for religion include direct fitness benefits from improved health and indirect fitness benefits mediated by costly signals and/or cultural group selection. Herein, I propose that religious denominations achieve indirect fitness gains for members through the use of ecologically arbitrary beliefs, rituals, and moral rules that function as recognition markers of cultural inheritance analogous to kin and species recognition of genetic inheritance in biology. This recognition signal hypotheses could act in concert with either costly signaling or cultural group selection to produce evolutionarily altruistic behaviors within denominations. Using a cultural phylogenetic analysis, I show that a large set of religious behaviors among extant Christian denominations supports the prediction of the recognition signal hypothesis that characters change more frequently near historical schisms. By incorporating demographic data into the model, I show that more-distinctive denominations, as measured through dissimilar characteristics, appear to be protected from intrusion by nonmembers in mixed-denomination households, and that they may be experiencing greater biological growth of their populations even in the present day.
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15
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Lindenfors P, Jansson F, Sandberg M. The cultural evolution of democracy: saltational changes in a political regime landscape. PLoS One 2011; 6:e28270. [PMID: 22140565 PMCID: PMC3227648 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0028270] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2011] [Accepted: 11/04/2011] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Transitions to democracy are most often considered the outcome of historical modernization processes. Socio-economic changes, such as increases in per capita GNP, education levels, urbanization and communication, have traditionally been found to be correlates or ‘requisites’ of democratic reform. However, transition times and the number of reform steps have not been studied comprehensively. Here we show that historically, transitions to democracy have mainly occurred through rapid leaps rather than slow and incremental transition steps, with a median time from autocracy to democracy of 2.4 years, and overnight in the reverse direction. Our results show that autocracy and democracy have acted as peaks in an evolutionary landscape of possible modes of institutional arrangements. Only scarcely have there been slow incremental transitions. We discuss our results in relation to the application of phylogenetic comparative methods in cultural evolution and point out that the evolving unit in this system is the institutional arrangement, not the individual country which is instead better regarded as the ‘host’ for the political system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrik Lindenfors
- Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
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Matthews LJ, Tehrani JJ, Jordan FM, Collard M, Nunn CL. Testing for divergent transmission histories among cultural characters: a study using Bayesian phylogenetic methods and Iranian tribal textile data. PLoS One 2011; 6:e14810. [PMID: 21559083 PMCID: PMC3084691 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2010] [Accepted: 03/18/2011] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Archaeologists and anthropologists have long recognized that different cultural complexes may have distinct descent histories, but they have lacked analytical techniques capable of easily identifying such incongruence. Here, we show how bayesian phylogenetic analysis can be used to identify incongruent cultural histories. We employ the approach to investigate Iranian tribal textile traditions. METHODS We used bayes factor comparisons in a phylogenetic framework to test two models of cultural evolution: the hierarchically integrated system hypothesis and the multiple coherent units hypothesis. In the hierarchically integrated system hypothesis, a core tradition of characters evolves through descent with modification and characters peripheral to the core are exchanged among contemporaneous populations. In the multiple coherent units hypothesis, a core tradition does not exist. Rather, there are several cultural units consisting of sets of characters that have different histories of descent. RESULTS For the Iranian textiles, the bayesian phylogenetic analyses supported the multiple coherent units hypothesis over the hierarchically integrated system hypothesis. Our analyses suggest that pile-weave designs represent a distinct cultural unit that has a different phylogenetic history compared to other textile characters. CONCLUSIONS The results from the Iranian textiles are consistent with the available ethnographic evidence, which suggests that the commercial rug market has influenced pile-rug designs but not the techniques or designs incorporated in the other textiles produced by the tribes. We anticipate that bayesian phylogenetic tests for inferring cultural units will be of great value for researchers interested in studying the evolution of cultural traits including language, behavior, and material culture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luke J Matthews
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
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17
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Lycett SJ, Collard M, McGrew WC. Correlations between genetic and behavioural dissimilarities in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) do not undermine the case for culture. Proc Biol Sci 2011; 278:2091-3; discussion 2094-5. [PMID: 21490014 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.2599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Stephen J Lycett
- Department of Anthropology, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR, UK.
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18
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Cochrane EE, Lipo CP. Phylogenetic analyses of Lapita decoration do not support branching evolution or regional population structure during colonization of Remote Oceania. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2011; 365:3889-902. [PMID: 21041213 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
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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Affiliation(s)
- Ethan E Cochrane
- International Archaeological Research Institute, 2081 Young Street, Honolulu, HI 96826, USA.
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19
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Jordan P, O'Neill S. Untangling cultural inheritance: language diversity and long-house architecture on the Pacific northwest coast. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2010; 365:3875-88. [PMID: 21041212 PMCID: PMC2981916 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Many recent studies of cultural inheritance have focused on small-scale craft traditions practised by single individuals, which do not require coordinated participation by larger social collectives. In this paper, we address this gap in the cultural transmission literature by investigating diversity in the vernacular architecture of the Pacific northwest coast, where communities of hunter-fisher-gatherers constructed immense wooden long-houses at their main winter villages. Quantitative analyses of long-house styles along the coastline draw on a range of models and methods from the biological sciences and are employed to test hypotheses relating to basic patterns of macro-scale cultural diversification, and the degree to which the transmission of housing traits has been constrained by the region's numerous linguistic boundaries. The results indicate relatively strong branching patterns of cultural inheritance and also close associations between regional language history and housing styles, pointing to the potentially crucial role played by language boundaries in structuring large-scale patterns of cultural diversification, especially in relation to 'collective' cultural traditions like housing that require substantial inputs of coordinated labour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Jordan
- Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, St Mary's Building, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen AB24 3UF, UK
- AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK
| | - Sean O'Neill
- Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, St Mary's Building, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen AB24 3UF, UK
- AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK
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20
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Tehrani JJ, Collard M, Shennan SJ. The cophylogeny of populations and cultures: reconstructing the evolution of Iranian tribal craft traditions using trees and jungles. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2010; 365:3865-74. [PMID: 21041211 PMCID: PMC2981911 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Phylogenetic approaches to culture have shed new light on the role played by population dispersals in the spread and diversification of cultural traditions. However, the fact that cultural inheritance is based on separate mechanisms from genetic inheritance means that socially transmitted traditions have the potential to diverge from population histories. Here, we suggest that associations between these two systems can be reconstructed using techniques developed to study cospeciation between hosts and parasites and related problems in biology. Relationships among the latter are patterned by four main processes: co-divergence, intra-host speciation (duplication), intra-host extinction (sorting) and horizontal transfers. We show that patterns of cultural inheritance are structured by analogous processes, and then demonstrate the applicability of the host-parasite model to culture using empirical data on Iranian tribal populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jamshid J Tehrani
- Evolutionary Anthropology Research Group, Department of Anthropology, Science Site, South Road, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.
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21
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Steele J, Jordan P, Cochrane E. Evolutionary approaches to cultural and linguistic diversity. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2010; 365:3781-5. [PMID: 21041203 PMCID: PMC2981919 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Evolutionary approaches to cultural change are increasingly influential, and many scientists believe that a 'grand synthesis' is now in sight. The papers in this Theme Issue, which derives from a symposium held by the AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity (University College London) in December 2008, focus on how the phylogenetic tree-building and network-based techniques used to estimate descent relationships in biology can be adapted to reconstruct cultural histories, where some degree of inter-societal diffusion will almost inevitably be superimposed on any deeper signal of a historical branching process. The disciplines represented include the three most purely 'cultural' fields from the four-field model of anthropology (cultural anthropology, archaeology and linguistic anthropology). In this short introduction, some context is provided from the history of anthropology, and key issues raised by the papers are highlighted.
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Affiliation(s)
- James Steele
- AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK.
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22
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Langergraber KE, Boesch C, Inoue E, Inoue-Murayama M, Mitani JC, Nishida T, Pusey A, Reynolds V, Schubert G, Wrangham RW, Wroblewski E, Vigilant L. Genetic and 'cultural' similarity in wild chimpanzees. Proc Biol Sci 2010; 278:408-16. [PMID: 20719777 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The question of whether animals possess 'cultures' or 'traditions' continues to generate widespread theoretical and empirical interest. Studies of wild chimpanzees have featured prominently in this discussion, as the dominant approach used to identify culture in wild animals was first applied to them. This procedure, the 'method of exclusion,' begins by documenting behavioural differences between groups and then infers the existence of culture by eliminating ecological explanations for their occurrence. The validity of this approach has been questioned because genetic differences between groups have not explicitly been ruled out as a factor contributing to between-group differences in behaviour. Here we investigate this issue directly by analysing genetic and behavioural data from nine groups of wild chimpanzees. We find that the overall levels of genetic and behavioural dissimilarity between groups are highly and statistically significantly correlated. Additional analyses show that only a very small number of behaviours vary between genetically similar groups, and that there is no obvious pattern as to which classes of behaviours (e.g. tool-use versus communicative) have a distribution that matches patterns of between-group genetic dissimilarity. These results indicate that genetic dissimilarity cannot be eliminated as playing a major role in generating group differences in chimpanzee behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin E Langergraber
- Primatology Department, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig 04103, Germany.
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