title: The Driving Forces of Cultural Complexity : Neanderthals, Modern Humans, and the Question of Population Size.
abstract: The forces driving cultural accumulation in human populations, both modern and ancient, are hotly debated. Did genetic, demographic, or cognitive features of behaviorally modern humans (as opposed to, say, early modern humans or Neanderthals) allow culture to accumulate to its current, unprecedented levels of complexity? Theoretical explanations for patterns of accumulation often invoke demographic factors such as population size or density, whereas statistical analyses of variation in cultural complexity often point to the importance of environmental factors such as food stability, in determining cultural complexity. Here we use both an analytical model and an agent-based simulation model to show that a full understanding of the emergence of behavioral modernity, and the cultural evolution that has followed, depends on understanding and untangling the complex relationships among culture, genetically determined cognitive ability, and demographic history. For example, we show that a small but growing population could have a different number of cultural traits from a shrinking population with the same absolute number of individuals in some circumstances.
authors: Department of Biology, Stanford University, Herrin Labs, 371 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA. uccolfo@ucl.ac.uk.|CoMPLEX, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. uccolfo@ucl.ac.uk.
authors: Laurel
authors: L
authors: Fogarty
authors: Meiji Institute for Advanced Study of Mathematical Sciences, Meiji University, Nakano 4-21-1, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, 164-8525, Japan.
authors: Joe Yuichiro
authors: JY
authors: Wakano
authors: Department of Biology, Stanford University, Herrin Labs, 371 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
authors: Marcus W
authors: MW
authors: Feldman
authors: Organization for the Strategic Coordination of Research and Intellectual Properties, Meiji University, Nakano 4-21-1, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, 164-8525, Japan.
authors: Kenichi
authors: K
authors: Aoki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D059125:Neanderthals; D011156:Population Density; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Cultural complexity; Cultural evolution; Demography; Modern humans; Neanderthals; Population size