Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2011 Feb 12;366(1563):412-23. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0132.
Previous work on mathematical models of cultural evolution has mainly focused on the diffusion of simple cultural elements. However, a characteristic feature of human cultural evolution is the seemingly limitless appearance of new and increasingly complex cultural elements. Here, we develop a general modelling framework to study such cumulative processes, in which we assume that the appearance and disappearance of cultural elements are stochastic events that depend on the current state of culture. Five scenarios are explored: evolution of independent cultural elements, stepwise modification of elements, differentiation or combination of elements and systems of cultural elements. As one application of our framework, we study the evolution of cultural diversity (in time as well as between groups).
先前关于文化进化的数学模型的研究主要集中在简单文化元素的传播上。然而，人类文化进化的一个特征是新的、日益复杂的文化元素的出现似乎是无穷无尽的。在这里，我们开发了一个通用的建模框架来研究这种累积过程，其中我们假设文化元素的出现和消失是随机事件，取决于文化的当前状态。探讨了五种情景：独立文化元素的进化、元素的逐步修改、元素的分化或组合以及文化元素系统。作为我们框架的一个应用，我们研究了文化多样性的演变（无论是在时间上还是在群体之间）。
