Cultural Evolution
Seminar
What gave rise to the mosaic of cultural expressions across the globe? Why are some societies more culturally diverse than others? What determined the societal adaptive capacity to novel environments? This research develops a unified theory of cultural evolution, characterizing the fundamental forces that have governed cultural change over the course of human existence. Cultural dynamics arise from the interaction between adaptation-based vertical transmission, horizontal diffusion, and fitness-based evolutionary selection. The theory generates novel hypotheses about the ancestral forces that shaped the global mosaic of cultural expressions, gave rise to cross-societal variation in cultural diversity, and influenced societal adaptive capacity. Drawing on novel measures of cultural diversity, spanning folkloric and musical traditions among indigenous ethnic groups, as well as norms, values, and attitudes in modern societies, the empirical analysis lends credence to the central predictions of the theory.
