The cophylogeny of populations and cultures: reconstructing the evolution of Iranian tribal craft traditions using trees and jungles.
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.
Evolutionary Anthropology Research Group, Department of Anthropology, Science Site, South Road, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK. jamie.tehrani@durham.ac.uk
Jamshid J
JJ
Tehrani
Mark
M
Collard
Stephen J
SJ
Shennan
D003468:Cultural Evolution; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010802:Phylogeny; D011157:Population Dynamics; D044382:Population Groups / Q000266:history; D013784:Textiles / Q000266:history