Collaborative Research: Multi-Ancestor Coalescent Theory For Cultural Evolution

合作研究：文化进化的多祖先合并理论

• 批准号: 1137865
• 负责人: Stefano Ghirlanda
• 金额: $ 44.8万
• 依托单位: CUNY Brooklyn College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2015-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1137865&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Multi; Ancestor; Coalescent

What are the origins of our culture, customs, and traditions? Who were our ancestors? These questions arouse great interest in the public, and are also debated among scientists and humanists. In the last 50 years, genetics has yielded numerous insights into human prehistory and history. Events such as migrations and epidemics leave traces in the DNA that can be decoded with the help of modern biological and mathematical methods. Humans, however, possess cultural heritage as well as genetic heritage, and cultural histories may differ radically from genetic histories: Genes come from just two parents, but ideas can come from anyone. This project will extend mathematical methods used in genetics so that they can be applied to study the cultural history of populations. In a similar way that biologists use genetic differences between individuals and groups to estimate their genetic histories, the new theory will use cultural differences to deduce cultural histories. This will allow to address such question as: How long ago did the cultural ancestors of a population live? How much contact has there been with other cultures? Is culture transmitted mostly by elites or by the general population? The project will thus add powerful instruments to the toolboxes of such disciplines as archeology, anthropology, history, and linguistics, advancing understanding of human history and helping to integrate science with the humanities. The work will be carried out by a diverse team of evolutionary biologists, physicists, and experts in the mathematical theory of cultural change, including key personnel and research assistants from underrepresented minorities.

我们的文化、习俗和传统的起源是什么？我们的祖先是谁？这些问题引起了公众的极大兴趣，也在科学家和人文主义者中引起了争论。在过去的50年里，遗传学为人类史前史和历史提供了许多见解。诸如移民和流行病等事件在DNA中留下了痕迹，可以借助现代生物学和数学方法进行解码。然而，人类拥有文化遗产和遗传遗产，文化历史可能与遗传历史截然不同：基因来自父母双方，但思想可以来自任何人。该项目将扩展遗传学中使用的数学方法，以便将其应用于研究人口的文化历史。与生物学家利用个体和群体之间的遗传差异来估计其遗传历史的方式类似，新理论将利用文化差异来推断文化历史。这将允许解决这样的问题：多久以前的文化祖先的人口生活？与其他文化有多少接触？文化主要是由精英还是由普通大众传播的？因此，该项目将为考古学、人类学、历史学和语言学等学科的工具箱增添强有力的工具，促进对人类历史的理解，并有助于将科学与人文相结合。这项工作将由进化生物学家、物理学家和文化变革数学理论专家组成的多元化团队进行，其中包括来自代表性不足的少数民族的关键人员和研究助理。