Cultural Multilevel Selection Research Articles

Tempo and Mode in Cultural Macroevolution.

Evolutionary scientists studying social and cultural evolution have proposed a multitude of mechanisms by which cultural change can be effected. In this article we discuss two influential ideas from the theory of biological evolution that can inform this debate: the contrast between the micro- and macro-evolution, and the distinction between the tempo and mode of evolution. We add the empirical depth to these ideas by summarizing recent results from the analyses of data on past societies in Seshat: Global History Databank. Our review of these results suggests that the tempo (rates of change, including their acceleration and deceleration) of cultural macroevolution is characterized by periods of apparent stasis interspersed by rapid change. Furthermore, when we focus on large-scale changes in cultural traits of whole groups, the most important macroevolutionary mode involves inter-polity interactions, including competition and warfare, but also cultural exchange and selective imitation; mechanisms that are key components of cultural multilevel selection (CMLS) theory.

Applying a cultural multilevel selection framework to the adoption of sustainable management practices in California viticulture

In light of the ongoing environmental impacts of agriculture, understanding farmer adoption of sustainable management practices (SMPs) is an important priority. Relatively little work in agricultural adoption has explicitly examined the multilevel dynamics of adoption decision-making. Yet because many SMPs involve cooperative dilemmas—they are individually costly but provide group benefits—understanding the dynamics of both individual and group level behavioral change is critical. In this paper, we argue that cultural evolutionary theory is well suited to examining the emergence and spread of cooperative SMPs, and we illustrate this claim by applying a cultural multilevel selection (CMLS) framework to the adoption of SMPs on the part of winegrape growers in California, USA. Using survey data from over 800 winegrape growers in 3 regions, we estimate the individual-level costs and group-level benefits of 44 different SMPs. We then relate this to variation in their adoption within and between winegrape growing regions to characterize the scope for cultural group selection of the various practices. We also identify a number of mechanisms that might plausibly explain the observed patterns of variation, including various forms of cultural group selection. We highlight the added value of this perspective with respect to the established approaches and outline the data requirements for researchers to conduct similar studies in other settings. Our results underscore the potential for a cultural evolutionary perspective to shed light on the multiscale mechanisms driving adoption of SMPs and, more generally, the promise of cultural evolutionary approaches to supplement existing analytical toolkits in sustainability science.

Designing cultural multilevel selection research for sustainability science

Humans stand out among animals in that we cooperate in large groups to exploit natural resources, and accumulate resource exploitation techniques across generations via cultural learning. This uniquely human form of adaptability is in large part to blame for the global sustainability crisis. This paper builds on cultural evolutionary theory to conceptualize and study environmental resource use and overexploitation. Human social learning and cooperation, particularly regarding social dilemmas, result in both sustainability crises and solutions. Examples include the collapse of global fisheries, and multilateral agreements to halt ozone depletion. We propose an explicitly evolutionary approach to study how crises and solutions may emerge, persist, or disappear. We first present a brief primer on cultural evolution to define group-level cultural adaptations for resource use. This includes criteria for identifying where group-level cultural adaptations may exist, and if a cultural evolutionary approach can be implemented in studying a given system. We then outline a step-by-step process for designing a study of group-level cultural adaptation, including the major methodological considerations that researchers should address in study design, such as tradeoffs between validity and control, issues of time scale, and the value of both qualitative and quantitative data and analysis. We discuss how to evaluate multiple types of evidence synthetically, including historical accounts, new and existing data sets, case studies, and simulations. The electronic supplement provides a tutorial and simple computer code in the R environment to lead users from theory to data to an illustration of an empirical test for group-level adaptations in sustainability research.

Evidence of cultural group selection in territorial lobstering in Maine

Relatively little is known about how resource conservation practices and institutions emerge. We examine the historical emergence of territoriality and conservation rules in Maine’s lobstering industry, using a cultural evolutionary perspective. Cultural evolution suggests that cultural adaptations such as practices and institutions arise as a result of evolutionary selection pressure. The cultural multilevel selection framework of Waring et al. (Ecol Soc, 2015) further proposes that group cultural adaptations tend to emerge at a level of social organization corresponding to the underlying dilemma. Drawing on detailed history and ethnography, we conduct a retrospective assessment to determine which levels of social organization experienced selection pressures that might explain the emergence of lobstering territoriality and conservation practices we observe in history. The evidence strongly suggests that informal territoriality evolved by selection on harbor gang behavior, while some conservation practices spread via selection at other levels from individuals to regional lobstering zones. We identify two apparent historical shifts in the dominant level of selection for these practices over the history of the industry and discuss the implications of this trajectory for the evolution of lobster management in the Gulf of Maine.

Cultural evolution and US agricultural institutions: a historical case study of Maine\u2019s blueberry industry

This paper presents a study of the emergence of environmental management institutions in Maine’s blueberry industry. We follow a cultural evolutionary approach to understand the factors that influenced the emergence of these institutions in environmental collective action problems. Specifically, we use a cultural multilevel selection framework to explore the prediction that collective action and institutions of environmental management emerge when cultural selection is the strongest among social groups positioned to solve a given collective action problem. To do this, we construct an evidence typology suited for a historical evolutionary analysis. We find that the scale of cultural adaptation responded to scale of the most pressing adaptive problem. The case study provides support for the group-level selection theory of institutional evolution, and displays patterns of institutional adaptation that respond to changing conditions over time. We argue that the dominant level of selection concept in multilevel selection theory helps to clarify how matches and mismatches between resource scale and institutional scale arise. We conclude that cultural evolutionary theory provides a general causal framework for organizing evidence, and complements the study of environmental history, which provides the temporal depth needed to examine evolutionary hypotheses.

Cultural multilevel selection suggests neither large or small cooperative agreements are likely to solve climate change without changing the game

Global climate change, one of the most formidable sustainability problems facing humanity, is a particularly challenging collective action problem, because it is global, requiring the cooperation of all or most countries. Efforts to foster global cooperation on mitigating climate change have centered on large international agreements, with limited success. As a consequence, some have suggested that the problem could be better solved through a “building blocks” approach, where smaller numbers of states form multiple cooperative agreements, called “climate clubs”. Recently, sustainability scientists have applied a Cultural Multilevel Selection (CMLS) Framework to a variety of sustainability problems. The CMLS Framework suggests that sustainability problems requiring collective action can often be solved through competition at a higher level of organization. For example, collective action problems arising within a fishing village could be solved through competition between villages. Here, I apply the CMLS Framework to global climate change. I show that, while higher level selection may solve smaller scale sustainability problems, it cannot solve truly global problems like climate change. I also show that multilevel selection based on climate clubs is unlikely to foster cooperation in the way that some existing models suggest. I also suggest that a potential solution to climate change may be eliminating the collective action problem altogether through investment in technological innovation that might make fossil fuels costlier than their alternatives.

Cultural multi-level selection and biological market theory explain the coupled dynamics of labor exchange cooperation and social support

Smallholders rely on labor exchange and social support networks; however, little is known about the cooperative dynamics of these interlinked systems. Whereas cultural multi-level selection (CLMS) predicts group membership and changes in the dominant level of selection modulates cooperation, biological market theory (BMT) posits market size fluctuations affect cooperation. We assess these predictions by examining two dimensions of labor exchange, competitive helping and labor reciprocity, and their downstream impacts on social support in a Dominican community between 2007 and 2010. First, we analyze within-community labor organization. Next, we analyze how international regulatory change and the 2008–2009 World Trade Collapse affected local labor organization and its impacts on competitive helping and labor reciprocity. Finally, we show how labor dynamics affected social support. Analyses reveal that (1) village labor initially involved two levels (labor contracting and labor exchange) and the presence of a structured group who maintained higher rates of reciprocal labor relative to non-group members; (2) changes in the international commodities market reduced labor contracting, the size of the labor exchange market, and the dominant level of selection, resulting in less competitive helping, lower rates of reciprocity for group members, and more cliquish social support; and (3) as the global market for bay oil ameliorated, labor organization shifted back to a pre-recession structure, resulting in a larger labor market with more competitive helping and higher rates of reciprocity amongst group members. We highlight the utility of an integrated CMLS and BMT framework for analyzing cooperative dynamics and socio-economic systems sustainability.

Re-examining balinese subaks through the lens of cultural multilevel selection

Overcoming environmental challenges requires understanding when and why individuals adopt cooperative behaviors, how individual behaviors and interactions among resource users change over time, and how group structure and group dynamics impact behaviors, institutions, and resource conditions. Cultural multilevel selection (CMLS) is a theoretical framework derived from theories of cultural evolution and cultural group selection that emphasizes pressures affecting different levels of social organization as well as conflicts among these levels. As such, CMLS can be useful for understanding many environmental challenges. With this paper, we use evidence from the literature and hypothetical scenarios to show how the framework can be used to understand the emergence and persistence of sustainable social–ecological systems. We apply the framework to the Balinese system of rice production and focus on two important cultural traits (synchronized cropping and the institutions and rituals associated with water management). We use data from the literature that discusses bottom-up (self-organized, complex adaptive system) and top-down explanations for the system and discuss how (1) the emergence of group structure, (2) group-level variation in cropping strategies, institutions, and rituals, and (3) variation in overall yields as a result of different strategies and institutions, could have allowed for the spread of group-beneficial traits and the increasing complexity of the system. We also outline cultural transmission mechanisms that can explain the spread of group-beneficial traits in Bali and describe the kinds of data that would be required to validate the framework in forward-looking studies.

Coordination, cooperation, and the ontogeny of group-level traits.

Group-level traits (GLTs) clarify the necessity of cultural multilevel selection theory. We propose a revised definition of the GLT concept. We also highlight the need to better understand the interplay between the dimensions of cooperation and coordination in the ontogeny of GLTs.

Cooperation, Games, and Ecological Feedback: Some Insights from Bali

Cooperation, Games, and Ecological Feedback: Some Insights from Bali