Demography and cultural innovation: A model and its implications for the emergence of modern human culture
Demography and cultural innovation: A model and its implications for the emergence of modern human culture
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DOI：
10.1017/s0959774301000014
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发表时间：
2001-04-01
影响因子：
1.2
通讯作者：
Shennan, S
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shennan, S
近年来，人们对探索信息代代相传和文化传播过程之间的类比产生了极大的兴趣，试图更好地了解文化变化是如何发生的。本文使用计算机模拟来探索人口统计学与创新之间关系的特定模型在进化框架内的含义。创新的结果似乎在人口较多的人群中比在人口较少的人群中成功得多。总而言之，该模型对过去50,000年来现代人类文化的起源具有重要的意义，这可能不是基因突变导致个人认知能力改善的结果，而是人口增长和接触范围扩大的人口结果，这在当时是显而易见的。该模型可能对理解现代人和前现代人的文化进化过程具有普遍意义。
In recent years there has been a major growth of interest in exploring the analogies between the genetic transmission of information from one generation to the next and the processes of cultural transmission, in an attempt to obtain a greater understanding of how culture change occurs. This article uses computer simulation to explore the implications of a specific model of the relationship between demography and innovation within an evolutionary framework. The consequences of innovation appear far more successful in larger populations than in smaller ones. In conclusion, its is suggested that the model has major implications for the origins of modern human culture in the last 50,000 years, which may be seen not as the result of genetic mutations leading to improved cognitive capacities of individuals, but as a population consequence of the demographic growth and increased contact range which are evident at this time. It is also proposed that the model may be of general relevance for understanding the process of cultural evolution in modern and pre-modern humans.