Process Of Cultural Transmission Research Articles

Production bias in cultural evolution: An examination of cubic dice variation in experimental and archaeological contexts

Similar artifact function and conformism to social norms are two models commonly proposed to explain why ancient people shared a particular form of material culture. We propose an additional model for explaining such similarity, production bias, which focuses on interactions between raw materials and the production of material culture. By way of modern replication experiments and a survey of ancient examples, we use dice to exemplify production bias and discuss how it can be recognized in the archaeological record. Although there are 15 possible configurations for cubic dice, all of equal function, only three are common in the archaeological record. Replication experiments show that one is the result of production bias, and is differentially produced by novice dice-makers. The other two are the byproduct of conformist cultural transmission processes. A similar result holds for dot patterns, or how dots are placed with respect to one another to represent a particular number.

A cultural model of private provision and the environment

This paper analyses an overlapping generations model of environmental externalities and capital accumulation where private contributions to environmental quality are motivated by a desire to socialize others into environmental attitudes. In this framework, the formation of environmental preferences is the result of a cultural transmission process depending on the extent of private contributions. In the short run, we show that three equilibria may arise: a first one where all green agents contribute to the environment, a second one where nobody contributes to the environment and a third interior one. We show that the capital-accumulation process and the change in preferences that occur in this economy lead the interior equilibrium to be selected, in which some, but not all, green agents contribute to the environment. The model thus provides an economic rationale for the gap between the number of people who care about the environment and the number who adopt pro-environmental behaviours. We also show that the fraction of contributors rises with capital, so that we explain the negative relationship between this gap and country income. Last, we show that this gap is particularly detrimental for welfare, and analyse the impact of a number of public policies.

Multilingual Knowledge Transmission of International Chinese Language Learners in China

The concept of knowledge transfer and transmission has been researched primarily in the context of the management of multinational organisations for the past few decades. However, only in recent years has this interest stretched beyond the business world into higher education management and innovation, as well as learning and teaching in universities. Little of this research has been directed to language learners, who constantly engage in the process of transmitting the multilingual and multicultural knowledge that is deeply embedded in their native and newly acquired languages and cultures. This study investigates knowledge creation, dissemination, and sharing in language education by a group of international learners studying the Chinese language at a university in China. By drawing on the scholarly literature around business knowledge management and that of language and cultural studies, this paper explores the impact of cultural differences in language learning and the factors that affect the process of linguistic and cultural knowledge transmission and sharing in a targeted learning context. The findings contribute to the learning, teaching, and research of the Chinese language as well as other languages in the context of international education. The implications for educational policy-making for language educators and institution management personnel are highlighted within the landscape of a knowledge economy.

Cultural evolution of killer whale calls: background, mechanisms and consequences

Cultural evolution is a powerful process shaping behavioural phenotypes of many species including our own. Killer whales are one of the species with relatively well-studied vocal culture. Pods have distinct dialects comprising a mix of unique and shared call types; calves adopt the call repertoire of their matriline through social learning. We review different aspects of killer whale acoustic communication to provide insights into the cultural transmission and gene-culture co-evolution processes that produce the extreme diversity of group and population repertoires. We argue that the cultural evolution of killer whale calls is not a random process driven by steady error accumulation alone: temporal change occurs at different speeds in different components of killer whale repertoires, and constraints in call structure and horizontal transmission often degrade the phylogenetic signal. We discuss the implications from bird song and human linguistic studies, and propose several hypotheses of killer whale dialect evolution.

Essays in Social Economics: On the Resilience of Cultural Traits and the Persistence of Cultural Diversity in Economic Models of Cultural Transmission

In this dissertation, which consists of four papers, I discuss questions in the literature on cultural transmission by building upon the work of Bisin and Verdier (2001). Thereby, in the first three papers the main focus of the analysis is on the ability of the discussed economic models of cultural transmission to explain the pervasive empirical evidence of the resilience of cultural traits and of the persistence of cultural diversity, while in the fourth paper I further focus on how the emergence, revival and extinction of cultural traits can be explained. The first paper is titled “Note on ‘The Economics of Cultural Transmission and the Dynamics of Preferences’, Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 97, no. 2, 2001, pp. 298-319, by A. Bisin and T. Verdier”. In this paper, I point out an error in the paper of Bisin and Verdier (2001), suggest a potential remedy, and finally show that the concept of cultural substitution by Bisin and Verdier is not as general as desirable.In the second paper, with the title “The Economics of Cultural Transmission and the Dynamics of Preferences Reconsidered: A new Criterion for the Persistence of Cultural Diversity in Cultural Transmission Models”, I build upon the insights of the first paper and propose a generalized concept of cultural substitution, which I call the concept of “sectional cultural substitution”. As I show, the concept I propose requires quite weak assumptions on the socialization behavior of parents, and much weaker assumptions than the concept of cultural substitution by Bisin and Verdier (2001). Therefore, the concept of sectional cultural substitution is a much more generally applicable criterion for the persistence of cultural diversity than the concept of cultural substitution. Further, while the empirical evidence does not fully support the concept of cultural substitution, the concept of sectional cultural substitution seems to be completely supported.In the third paper, titled “A general Model of Parents’ Influence in Cultural Transmission”, I extend the model of Bisin and Verdier (2001) by assuming that parents are not only able to influence the probability with which their children become directly socialized to their parents’ traits, but additionally also have influence on the socialization of their children through society as a whole. Thereby, the central question is whether the endogenous cultural transmission model introduced by Bisin and Verdier (2001) is able to explain the empirically observed persistence of cultural diversity also under such less restrictive assumptions on the influence of parents on the socialization of their children. As I can show, the qualitative results with respect to the distribution of the cultural traits on the level of the society remain unchanged under broad conditions.Finally, in the fourth paper, with the title “Emergence, Resilience, Extinction and Revival of Cultural Traits: Cultural Transmission and the Dynamics of Preferences under Endogenous Socialization Preferences of Parents”, I develop a general model of cultural transmission under purposeful socialization on the parts of parents by introducing into the model of Bisin and Verdier (2001) the assumption that the utilities that parents derive from children with one versus another trait depend on the cultural composition of the society, and may also change over time. Further, in an extension of the model, I assume that the probabilities, with which children are socialized to a trait during oblique socialization, reflect the children’s overall preferences regarding the adoption of different traits. Thereby, the children’s preferences may depend on both social influences and children’s predispositions, on the parents’ cultural trait, and are allowed to vary over time as well. Together, this model permits to not only explain the enduring resilience of cultural traits, which has been the focus of the theoretical literature on cultural transmission up to date, but also the emergence of new cultural traits, the revival of before rare or extinct cultural traits, and the extinction of cultural traits, potentially after long periods of resilience.Together, the results of this dissertation show that cultural transmission models, in which the transmission of cultural traits to children depends on purposeful socialization on the parts of parents, are able to explain the persistence of cultural diversity and the resilience of cultural traits under much more general conditions than previously known. Above, under less restrictive assumptions on the processes of cultural transmission, such models are even capable of accounting for the emergence, revival and extinction of cultural traits.

Tradition over trend: Neighboring chimpanzee communities maintain differences in cultural behavior despite frequent immigration of adult females

The notion of animal culture has been well established mainly through research aiming at uncovering differences between populations. In chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), cultural diversity has even been found in neighboring communities, where differences were observed despite frequent immigration of individuals. Female chimpanzees transfer at the onset of sexual maturity at an age, when the behavioral repertoire is fully formed. With immigrating females, behavioral variety enters the group. Little is known about the diversity and the longevity of cultural traits within a community. This study is building on previous findings of differences in hammer selection when nut cracking between neighboring communities despite similar ecological conditions. We now further investigated the diversity and maintenance of cultural traits within one chimpanzee community and were able to show high levels of uniformity in group-specific behavior. Fidelity to the behavior pattern did not vary between dispersing females and philopatric males. Furthermore, group-specific tool selection remained similar over a period of 25 years. Additionally, we present a study case on how one newly immigrant female progressively behaved more similar to her new group, suggesting that the high level of similarity in behavior is actively adopted by group members possibly even when originally expressing the behavior in another form. Taken together, our data support a cultural transmission process in adult chimpanzees, which leads to persisting cultural behavior of one community over time.

The introduction of ceramics in the Ertebølle Culture

Pottery production has long been viewed as an integrated part of the Neolithic package. Instances of ceramic production in hunter-gatherer contexts have been explained by influences from early farmers. This has also been the case for the ceramics of the Ertebølle Culture. Recently, however, the discussion has become more nuanced and alternative explanations have emerged. This article argues that a focus on the life cycle of the early ceramics as well as an understanding of technology transfer as a process of cultural transmission can potentially broaden the perspective on the uptake of ceramics technology by the hunter-gatherers of northern Europe. The chaîne opératoire of the Ertebølle ceramics is analysed and a model of how a technology moves from one social setting to another is presented. In the light of this work, different approaches to the introduction of ceramics in the western Baltic are discussed. It is argued that important elements of the Ertebølle pottery tradition came from the east via Baltic exchange networks. However, the tradition was not directly transferred, and important elements appear along the way. Whether some of these elements can be ascribed to agro-pastoralist groups inthe south is still uncertain.

The Effects of Cultural Transmission Are Modulated by the Amount of Information Transmitted

Information changes as it is passed from person to person, with this process of cultural transmission allowing the minds of individuals to shape the information that they transmit. We present mathematical models of cultural transmission which predict that the amount of information passed from person to person should affect the rate at which that information changes. We tested this prediction using a function-learning task, in which people learn a functional relationship between two variables by observing the values of those variables. We varied the total number of observations and the number of those observations that take unique values. We found an effect of the number of observations, with functions transmitted using fewer observations changing form more quickly. We did not find an effect of the number of unique observations, suggesting that noise in perception or memory may have affected learning.

Reading, Writing, and Collecting: Cultural Dynamics and Italian Vernacular Bible Translations

The contribution focuses on the dissemination of vernacular Bible translations in late medieval Italy. After a short description of the status quaestionis in the research of vernacular Bible in Italy, the contribution will illustrate which processes of cultural transmission and translation contributed to the diffusion of the biblical texts. The essay will also evaluate the role played by lay people in reading and writing activities connected to the biblical text and in the ‘domestication’ of biblical knowledge: the use of biblical manuscripts and early prints in domestic, private, and semi-private space. Far from being passive recipients, lay people were involved in every stage of the dissemination of the Holy Writ: as dedicatees of the translations, as scribes, as collectors, as distributors, and as readers.

An Abstract Model Showing That the Spatial Structure of Social Networks Affects the Outcomes of Cultural Transmission Processes

Space plays an important role in the transfer of information in most societies that archaeologists study. Social networks that mediate learning and the transmission of cultural information are situated in spatial environments. This paper uses an abstract agent-based model to represent the transmission of the value of a single stylistic variable among groups linked together within a social network, the spatial structure of which is varied using a few simple parameters. The properties of the networks are shown to clearly affect both the overall amount of variability that is produced by the cultural transmission process and the spatial organization of that variability. the relationships between network structure, network properties, and assemblage variability in this simple model are patterned and predictable. This suggests that changes in the spatial structure of social networks may have important implications for interpreting patterns of artifact variability in large-scale archaeological assemblages.

Late Mesolithic Armature Variability in the Southern North Sea Basin: Implications for Forager-LinearbandkeramikContact Models of the Transition to Agriculture in Belgium and the Southern Netherlands

Lithic armatures have been widely noted as key evidence for interpreting the role of indigenous Mesolithic traditions in the spread of the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture, and therefore early agriculture, across temperate Europe. Their role as evidence for the continuity of Mesolithic ‘identities’ has been emphasized without the use of a unified, systematic recording methodology of armatures from both Late–Final Mesolithic (LM–FM) and LBK sites that places armatures in their broader context as part of projectile technologies of late hunter-gatherers and early farmers. In this paper, we present the results of recent research in the southern North Sea basin that utilized a systematic and unified recording methodology to analyse armature assemblages from LM–FM and LBK sites on an inter-regional scale. We report that there is much more inter-regional variability in armature assemblages during the LM than traditionally considered in efforts to interpret similarities and possible cultural transmission processes between Mesolithic and LBK populations. This paper calls for a reassessment of inter-regional LM variability in the construction of Mesolithic-LBK contact models and a focus that places armatures in their broader social and technological contexts.

Communicative Modelling of Cultural Transmission and Evolution Through a Holographic Cognition Model

This article presents communicative ways to model the transmission and evolution of the processes and artefacts of a culture as the result of ongoing interactions between its members - both at the tacit and the explicit level. The purpose is not to model the entire cultural process, but to provide semantically rich “conceptual placeholders” for modelling any cultural activity that is considered important enough within a certain context. The general purpose of communicative modelling is to create models that improve the quality of communication between people. In order to capture the subjective aspects of Gregory Bateson’s definition of information as “a difference that makes a difference,” the article introduces a Holographic Cognition Model that uses optical holography as an analogy for human cognition, with the object beam of holography corresponding to the first difference (the situation that the cognitive agent encounters), and the reference beam of holography corresponding to the subjective experiences and biases that the agent brings to the situation, and which makes the second difference (the interference/interpretation pattern) unique for each agent. By combining the HCM with a semantically rich and recursive form of process modelling, based on the SECI-theory of knowledge creation, we arrive at way to model the cultural transmission and evolution process that is consistent with the Unified Theory of Information (the Triple-C model) with its emphasis on intra-, inter- and supra-actions.

Peopling the last new worlds: The first colonisation of Sahul and the Americas

Current understanding of the processes involved in the Late Pleistocene human settlement of North America has benefited from the application of theoretical perspectives derived from evolutionary ecology, human behavioral ecology, and evolutionary paradigms. These perspectives have increased and expanded our grasp of critical issues including demography and migration strategies; foraging, settlement mobility, and technological strategies; processes of social learning and cultural transmission; mobility and interaction networks; and the involvement of symbolism and prestige in social cohesion. The rapid spread of the Clovis cultural phenomenon across the entire continent has long fascinated archaeologists because of its speed, geographic extent, association with big-game hunting, and impressive degree of technological knowledge and skill. Renewed investigation of this phenomenon points toward the critical role of certain social factors behind its success. In particular, prestige-seeking and symbolic representation of inter-group relationships are increasingly viewed as driving forces in explaining this unique colonization event.

On the evolution of coarse categories

We compare the evolutionary fitness of different cultures (or populations), where we think of culture as partitioning a set of decision situations into categories of situations treated the same. Information about optimal behavior in each category is passed on via a process of noisy cultural transmission. We show that coarse partitions (distinguishing less situations) can provide higher evolutionary fitness even if there are no explicit costs to holding finer partitions.

Utilization of molluscs as a food resource among traditional communities in Kalpitiya Region (KR) of Sri Lanka

The present ethnography of fishing communities can be divided as; Deep sea fishing and Littoral – lagoonal fishing. Over the recent decades, the number of coastal zone users increased considerably and so has the nature of demands. The latter include the exploitation of resources found in the zone. Studying current uses of marine and brackish water mollusc resource has two prime values. First is, as it is depicting the periods in history and changes of the shell utilizing pattern. The second is recording recent trends for future studies. Currently the shell resource is drastically running out due to escalating use. Therefore research on fishing culture and utilization of molluscs is important to the future archaeomalacological studies, which is largely untouched by the Sri Lankan researchers. Present research partially fills this void by examining the exploitation of marine and brackish water gastropod and bivalve molluscs in archaeological and ethnographical contexts for the better understanding of the relation between man and molluscs. The research is focused on traditional cultural-economical uses, specially the food economy.From the edible marine organisms, molluscs fill a considerable amount of sea food consumed by man. Two major classes of them, i.e. bivalves and gastropods are utilized to meet this demand. One main locality was examined here, i.e. Kalpitiya Ânavâsala (KA) in North West coast of Sri Lanka. Shell samples were collected from the kitchen middens in the selected region, participant observation and interviews were made with locals. Total shell sample was measured and recorded. Results.Thirteen main edible species were identified from the kitchen middens of KA. From them three types can be found largely in the middens, i.e. Pugilina cochlidium, Paphia sp., Gafrarium tumidum. The other species are very scarce in the middens, but that does not indicate their dietary importance is minor. The main point is that the gatherers collect all species which they know as edible. The saidabundant species are higher in total biomass and easy to collect. Except Turbinella pyrum, Murex ramosas and Lambis chiragra, others are collected mainly from their usual habitats such as sandy bottoms, intertidal flats, subtidal flats and on muddy sand flats seaward from mangrove forests. The rate of the utilization pattern, when it was analyzed with the composition of kitchen middens of the studying area ca. 70% of kitchen middens are comprised with the shells of bivalves (9 middens) and ca. 30% (4 middens) with gastropod shells. In the west coast mollusc collecting is started in April and prevails for six months, which is the active period of high sea (vârakan) of south west monsoon. In the diet of the locals shell fish play many roles as a staple food, subsidiary foods, snacks, and an alternative food source when other subsistence strategies fail. Traditionally maritime communities have their ownterminology not only for the various species but also for collecting, shucking and cooking methods.Utilization of marine and brackish water molluscs in certain traditional maritime cultures is a vertical process of cultural transmission (generational transmission through time). The horizontal process or the cultural exchange across space can be seen through history and society. Hence the use of marine molluscs as a food resource is significant in socio – economic studies of both archaeological andenvironmental approaches.

Interspecific interactions drive cultural co‐evolution and acoustic convergence in syntopic species

1. Antagonistic interactions have been favourite subjects of studies on species co-evolution, because coexistence among competing species often results in quantifiable character displacement. A common output for competitive interactions is trait divergence, although the opposite phenomenon, convergence, has been proposed to evolve in some instances, for example in the communication behaviour of species that maintain mutually exclusive territories. 2. I use here experimental and observational evidence to study how species interactions drive heterospecific signal convergence and analyse how convergence feeds back to the interaction itself, in the form of aggressive behaviour. I recorded the learned territorial signals of two non-hybridizing larks, Galerida cristata and G.theklae, and used allopatric populations as controls for evaluating acoustic convergence in syntopy. Acoustic variation was analysed with respect to social conditions controlling for other potential agents of natural selection, habitat and climate. 3. Interspecific convergence of Galerida calls peaked in syntopy. Although call acoustic structure was affected by climate and habitat, it matched gradients of density and proximity to congeners even at small local scales. The process of cultural transmission, in which individuals may acquire components of behaviour by copying neighbours, enhances the correlation between call acoustics and the local social milieu. 4. Territories were defended against both species, but playback stimuli of convergent congener calls elicited a stronger aggressive reaction than congener calls from allopatric locations. 5. This study shows that learned behaviours may co-evolve as a consequence of antagonistic interactions, determining reciprocal cultural evolution or cultural co-evolution. As for (biological) co-evolution, the distribution of competing species influences whether a particular area becomes a syntopic environment in which convergence is occurring, or an allopatric environment lacking interactions and reciprocal change. Because of their plastic nature, cultural coadaptations may rapidly shift in response to fluctuating social selection, thus propelling dynamic interactions and fine adjustments to the local environment.

Social learning among Congo Basin hunter–gatherers

This paper explores childhood social learning among Aka and Bofi hunter-gatherers in Central Africa. Existing literature suggests that hunter-gatherer social learning is primarily vertical (parent-to-child) and that teaching is rare. We use behavioural observations, open-ended and semi-structured interviews, and informal and anecdotal observations to examine the modes (e.g. vertical versus horizontal/oblique) and processes (e.g. teaching versus observation and imitation) of cultural transmission. Cultural and demographic contexts of social learning associated with the modes and processes of cultural transmission are described. Hunter-gatherer social learning occurred early, was relatively rapid, primarily vertical under age 5 and oblique and horizontal between the ages of 6 and 12. Pedagogy and other forms of teaching existed as early as 12 months of age, but were relatively infrequent by comparison to other processes of social learning such as observation and imitation.

‘Off The Model’: resistant spaces, school disaffection and ‘aspiration’ in a former coal-mining community

Discussions of ‘aspiration’ influencing contemporary education policy and practice are framed almost exclusively in terms of individual – or, at most, familial – ambitions towards economic prosperity. The failure to achieve ‘social mobility’ in British society is often posed as being due to the ‘low aspirations’ of working class children, particularly in formerly heavily industrialised areas. In a classic case of ‘blaming the victim’ the social exclusion that undoubtedly exists in such areas is blamed on those who suffer it. Things would be different, the argument goes, if only people aspired to ‘get on’. This paper looks at material from an intergenerational ethnographic study of some former coal-mining communities in the north of England which are often popularly characterised as insular and lacking in ambition. In contrast to this stereotype, however, the data suggests that working class teenagers growing up in the impoverished and abandoned geography of Victorian colliery model villages, rather than suffering a failure of aspiration, often angrily and powerfully aspire – but for something contrary to the dominant model. Reviewing the ethnographic data in the light of a sociological and historical literature that attests to the exceptional nature of coal-mining communities, I suggest that such exceptionality impacts on young people's dispositions towards the educational project as a whole through a complex process of cultural transmission. A historically and locally situated notion of counter aspiration – that I call, here, resistant aspiration – is evident. I propose, in conclusion, that an acknowledgement of such resistant aspiration might help understand the widespread ‘school disaffection’ of working class youngsters not only in these former coal-mining communities but also in other post-industrial settings – nationally and internationally – that are similarly characterised by contested histories.

Information and Communication Technologies for Cultural Transmission among Indigenous Peoples

AbstractThe global digital divide threatens to exclude millions of people from the potential benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), especially computers and the Internet. Many of these people live in rural, isolated and remote places of developing countries and are unlikely to be able to afford the cost of owning their own computers. However, NGOs, international aid agencies and governments are becoming increasingly aware of the potential that ICTs offer for rural development and poverty reduction and are creating more opportunities for providing wider access to them. This paper looks at how ICTs have contributed to the social development of a rural indigenous ethnic community. It focuses on the benefits of ICTs in recording and passing on their unique culture and traditions, something that is of considerable importance to the community. The research builds an understanding of the nature of cultural transmission within an indigenous community in East Malaysia and demonstrates how ICTs can bridge the digital divide by accentuating the importance of family, friends and other social interactions within a community in strengthening the processes of cultural transmission. Based on the findings, suggestions are offered for reinforcing social processes of cultural transmission with ICTs, in the form of a virtual museum and a community radio station.

Are You Satisfied? PhD Education and Faculty Taste for Prestige: Limits of the Prestige Value System

This paper empirically evaluates Caplow and McGee’s (The academic marketplace, 1958) model of academia as a prestige value system (PVS) by testing several hypotheses about the relationship between prestige of faculty appointment and job satisfaction. Using logistic regression models to predict satisfaction with several job domains in a sample of more than 1,000 recent social science PhD graduates who hold tenure-track or tenured faculty positions, we find that the relationship between prestige of faculty appointment and job satisfaction is modified by PhD program prestige. Graduates of high prestige PhD programs value prestige more highly and graduates of low prestige programs value salary more highly. We explain our findings by incorporating reference group theory and a theory of taste formation into our model of the academic PVS, which identifies PhD programs as sites of socialization to different tastes for prestige (a process of cultural transmission) in addition to their well recognized role in transmission of human and social capital. We discuss practical and theoretical implications of our findings in relation to efforts to measure PhD program quality and to understand the structure of academic labor markets.