Scholars Award in Methodological Training in Agent-Based Models and Evolutionary Game Theory

这一文化人类学研究人员方法论培训学者奖将使他在基于主体的建模和进化博弈论方面获得足够的专业知识，以参与积极的研究计划，将这些方法应用于文化和生态人类学中的重要问题。这些方法在社会科学和生物科学的各个领域越来越重要，并为目前许多关于行为和适应的跨学科研究提供了一个共同的框架。首席调查员将与圣达菲研究所和马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校在这些方法方面有专长的资深同事合作。进化博弈论和基于代理的建模为分析社会过程的微观基础(个人的行动和动机)和动态(如何决定变化和稳定性)提供了互补的工具。该项目的实质重点是集体行动问题和在小规模(非分层)人类社会中出现的不平等问题。要解决的中心研究问题包括：1)可能有利于通过群体内地位竞争和讨价还价过程发展个体代价高昂但对群体有利的规范的社会和生态条件；2)强制、信号、伙伴选择和语言交流在解决集体行动问题中的作用；3)为分析资源控制、地位竞争和群体间冲突在制度化社会政治不平等的出现和稳定中的影响而制定的博弈论框架。拟议研究的更广泛影响包括：通过对跨学科使用的建模方法进行分析，加强在许多社会科学家和行为生物学家感兴趣的重要专题上的跨学科协作的有效性；提供对可能对应用社会科学有价值的集体行动问题的产生和解决的见解(例如，对共有资源的管理)；以及帮助生成工具，以便更有效地教授社会科学和生物科学的概念，特别是通过使用邀请主动学习的模拟方法。

This Scholars Award in Methodological Training for a cultural anthropology researcher will allow him to gain sufficient expertise in agent-based modeling and evolutionary game theory to engage in an active research program applying these methods to important problems in cultural and ecological anthropology. These methods are of growing importance in various fields in the social and biological sciences, and provide a common framework for much current interdisciplinary research on behavior and adaptation. The Principal Investigator will collaborate with senior colleagues who have expertise in these methods, at the Santa Fe Institute and at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Evolutionary game theory and agent-based modeling provide complementary tools for analyzing social processes in terms of their .micro-foundations (the actions and motivations of individuals) and dynamics (how change and stability are determined). The substantive focus of this project is on collective action problems and the emergence of inequality in the context of small-scale (non-stratified) human societies. The central research questions to be addressed include 1) the social and ecological conditions which might favor the development of individually costly but group-beneficial norms through processes of within-group status competition and bargaining; 2) the roles of enforcement, signaling, partner choice, and linguistic communication in solving collective action problems; 3) and the elaboration of game-theoretical frameworks for analyzing the effects of resource control, status competition, and inter-group conflict in the emergence and stability of institutionalized sociopolitical inequality. Broader impacts of the proposed research include enhancing the effectiveness of interdisciplinary collaboration on important topics of interest to many social scientists and behavioral biologists by framing analyses in terms of modeling methods used across these disciplines; and offering insights into the generation and solution of collective action problems (e.g., management of resources held in common) that may be of value for applied social science; as well as helping generate tools for more effective teaching of social and biological science concepts, particularly through the use of simulation methods that invite active learning.