Variable cultural acquisition costs constrain cumulative cultural evolution.

ABSTRACT: One of the hallmarks of the human species is our capacity for cumulative culture, in which beneficial knowledge and technology is accumulated over successive generations. Yet previous analyses of cumulative cultural change have failed to consider the possibility that as cultural complexity accumulates, it becomes increasingly costly for each new generation to acquire from the previous generation. In principle this may result in an upper limit on the cultural complexity that can be accumulated, at which point accumulated knowledge is so costly and time-consuming to acquire that further innovation is not possible. In this paper I first review existing empirical analyses of the history of science and technology that support the possibility that cultural acquisition costs may constrain cumulat

SUBMITTER: Mesoudi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3068160 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature