Divide and conquer: intermediate levels of population fragmentation maximize cultural accumulation.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the determinants of cumulative cultural evolution is a key issue in the interdisciplinary field of cultural evolution. A widely held view is that large and well-connected social networks facilitate cumulative cultural evolution because they promote the spread of useful cultural traits and prevent the loss of cultural knowledge through factors such as drift. This view stems from models that focus on the transmission of cultural information, without considering how new cultural traits actually arise. In this paper, we review the literature from various fields that suggest that, under some circumstances, increased connectedness can decrease cultural diversity and reduce innovation rates. Incorporating this idea into an agent-based model, we explore the effect of population fragmen

SUBMITTER: Derex M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5812974 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature