title: Modeling Demic and Cultural Diffusion: An Introduction.
abstract: Identifying the processes by which human cultures spread across different populations is one of the most topical objectives shared among different fields of study. Seminal works have analyzed a variety of data and attempted to determine whether empirically observed patterns are the result of demic and/or cultural diffusion. This special issue collects articles exploring several themes (from modes of cultural transmission to drivers of dispersal mechanisms) and contexts (from the Neolithic in Europe to the spread of computer programming languages), which offer new insights that will augment the theoretical and empirical basis for the study of demic and cultural diffusion. In this introduction we outline the state of art in the modeling of these processes, briefly discuss the pros and cons of two of the most commonly used frameworks (equation-based models and agent-based models), and summarize the significance of each article in this special issue.
authors.affiliation: 1 Complex Systems Laboratory, Universitat de Girona, Department of Physics, Girona, Catalonia, Spain.|2 Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Joaquim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fort
authors.affiliation: 3 CaSEs - Complexity and Socio-Ecological Dynamics Research Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Department of Humanities, Barcelona, Spain.|4 University College London Institute of Archaeology, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Enrico R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Crema
authors.affiliation: 2 Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|3 CaSEs - Complexity and Socio-Ecological Dynamics Research Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Department of Humanities, Barcelona, Spain.|5 Milà i Fontanals Institute, Spanish National Research Council (IMF-CSIC), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Madella
mesh_terms: D003469:Culture; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical
keywords: agent-based simulation; cultural diffusion; cultural evolution; cultural transmission; demic diffusion; reaction-dispersal models