Abstract
Considerable progress in explaining cultural evolutionary dynamics has been made by applying rigorous models from the natural sciences to historical and ethnographic information collected and accessed using novel digital platforms. Initial results have clarified several long-standing debates in cultural evolutionary studies, such as population origins, the role of religion in the evolution of complex societies and the factors that shape global patterns of language diversity. However, future progress requires recognition of the unique challenges posed by cultural data. To address these challenges, standards for data collection, organisation and analysis must be improved and widely adopted. Here, we describe some major challenges to progress in the construction of large comparative databases of cultural history, including recognising the critical role of theory, selecting appropriate units of analysis, data gathering and sampling strategies, winning expert buy-in, achieving reliability and reproducibility in coding, and ensuring interoperability and sustainability of the resulting databases. We conclude by proposing a set of practical guidelines to meet these challenges.
Highlights
We evaluate a range of possible responses to these challenges, and provide a set of specific recommendations that takes into account the unique challenges that researchers face when pursuing a science of cultural evolutionary dynamics
The creators of large databases, who are often cultural evolutionary theorists, should perform outreach with relevant expert communities, encouraging their involvement in choice of units of analysis, design of coding questions and rubrics, and ideally in the coding itself or the vetting of coding performed by research assistants (RAs)
Fragmentation of resources and the production of data undermined by concerns about quality or reproducibility, it is imperative that a basic set of best practices be established
Summary
Current large-scale projects have adopted different responses to the challenges of defining units of analysis and units of measurement, focusing on the religious group, place or object (DRH), geographically and linguistically defined culture (Pulotu, eHRAF, D-PLACE, NHSP) or polity (Seshat).
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