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Studying the emergence of complicated group-level cultural traits requires a mathematical framework

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2014

Michael Doebeli  and
Burton Simon
Michael Doebeli
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. doebeli@zoology.ubc.cawww.ubc.ca
Burton Simon
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Colorado at Denver, Denver, CO 80202. Burt.Simon@ucdenver.eduhttp://www.ucdenver.edu
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Abstract

Understanding the cultural evolution of complicated group-level traits requires the mathematical formulation of a dynamical system with birth and death events at multiple levels, that is, at the level of individual humans and at the level of groups of humans. Both levels are characterized by cultural traits that have complicated transmission, innovation, and inheritance mechanisms and that can undergo a form of Lamarckian evolution.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , June 2014 , pp. 258 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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