Collaborative Research: Multi-Ancestor Coalescent Theory For Cultural Evolution

我们的文化、习俗和传统的起源是什么？谁是我们的祖先？这些问题引起了公众的极大兴趣，也引起了科学家和人文主义者的争论。在过去的50年里，遗传学已经产生了许多关于人类史前和历史的见解。迁徙和流行病等事件在DNA中留下痕迹，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基因遗产，文化历史可能与基因历史截然不同：基因只来自父母双方，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种群的文化史。就像生物学家利用个体和群体之间的遗传差异来估计他们的遗传历史一样，新的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：一个人口的文化祖先生活在多久以前？与其他文化有多少接触？文化主要是由精英还是普通大众传播的？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大的工具，促进对人类历史的理解，并有助于将科学与人文科学相结合。这项工作将由一个由进化生物学家、物理学家和文化变化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。

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.