Models of cultural niche construction with selection and assortative mating.

ABSTRACT: Niche construction is a process through which organisms modify their environment and, as a result, alter the selection pressures on themselves and other species. In cultural niche construction, one or more cultural traits can influence the evolution of other cultural or biological traits by affecting the social environment in which the latter traits may evolve. Cultural niche construction may include either gene-culture or culture-culture interactions. Here we develop a model of this process and suggest some applications of this model. We examine the interactions between cultural transmission, selection, and assorting, paying particular attention to the complexities that arise when selection and assorting are both present, in which case stable polymorphisms of all cultural phenotypes are p

SUBMITTER: Creanza N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3419226 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature