WK 5.2 Modern Sociocultural Evolution - Hanane Ben Abdeslam

Human cultural behaviors, ideas, and technologies that can be learned from other individuals, can exhibit complex patterns of transmission and evolution, and researchers have developed theoretical models, both verbal and mathematical, to facilitate our understanding of these patterns. The formation of different languages and of distinct species, and the proofs that both have been developed through a process, are curiously parallel. Therefore, we explore the ways in which cultural evolutionary theory and its applications enhance our understanding of human history and human biology, focusing on the links between cultural evolutionary theory and population genetics, human behavior, and demography. Throughout the years there are many efforts to apply data, linking models of cultural evolution, language, archaeology, and anthropology. To make you understand better I will give you an example: studies of cultural factors, including language and customs, help scientist interpret patterns of evolution that might be misinterpreted if the cultural context were not taken into account. 

In the modern theory, the new insights and population genetics were combined with Darwin’s theory of evolution. In other words, modern synthesis gave evolutionary theory a mechanistic basis in genetics. However, the simple observation that cultural traits need not to conform to produce complex evolutionary dynamics. If children are likely to reject a cultural trait that both of their parents possess, the frequency of that trait in the population may oscillate between generations. Furthermore, a child can acquire cultural traits not only from its parents but also from nonparental adults.

In most cases, the more common a cultural trait is in the population, the more likely it is for an individual to have the opportunity to acquire it through social learning. 

Hanane Ben Abdeslam

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