Showing papers by "Stephen Shennan published in 2003"

Genes, Memes, and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution

Abstract: Preface * 1. Introduction: Why Darwinian archaeology? * 2. Behavioural ecology: the evolutionary study of behaviour * 3. Culture as an evolutionary system * 4. The evolutionary archaeology of cultural traditions * 5. Human life histories and their population consequences * 6. The archaeology of getting a living * 7. Male-female relations in an evolutionary perspective: the role of sexual selection * 8. The history of social contracts and the evolution of property * 9. Competition, co-operation and warfare: the role of group selection * 10. History, adaptation and self-organization

Neolithic transition in Europe: the radiocarbon record revisited

Abstract: Understanding the introduction of farming and the adoption of Neolithic culture continues to be a major research objective in Europe. The authors make use of a new database of radiocarbon dates from Mesolithic and Neolithic sites to map the transition. While the overall effect is still a diffusion into Europe from the south-east, detailed spatial analysis reveals fascinating local variations: in some places change was rapid, and one population replaced another, in others it was gradual and owed to incoming ideas rather than people.

Cultural evolution and stochastic network growth

Abstract: Archaeological theory has traditionally presupposed the existence of "battleship curves" in stylistic evolution, with little understanding about what governs the width (variant frequency) or length (variant lifespan) of these curves. In terms of these variables. we propose that there is a testable difference between independent decisions, unbiased transmission, and biased transmission in cultural evolution. We expect independent decision making to be represented by an exponential distribution of variant prevalence in the population. In contrast, unbiased transmission tends to be characterized by a power law or log-normal distribution of prevalence, while biased transmission should deviate significantly from the unbiased case. The difference between these categories may be fundamental to how cultural traits spread and persist. In order to make analytical predictions for unbiased transmission, we adapt a model of stochastic network growth that, by quantitatively demonstrating the inherent nonlinearity at unbiased transmission, can explain why a few highly popular styles can be expected to emerge in the course of cultural evolution. For the most part, this model predicts the frequencies of pottery decorations remarkably well over a 400-year span of Linearbandkeramik settlement in the Merzbach valley. Because the highest frequencies of actual motifs are somewhat less than predicted by our unbiased transmission model, we identify an anti-conformist, or pro-novelty, bias in the later phases of the Neolithic Merzbuch Valley.

Introduction: Archaeological approaches to cultural identity

Abstract: The essence of the argument in this book is that the phenomenon of cultural difference raises profound problems for archaeology at all levels of both theory and practice. This introduction outlines some of these problem areas, and the individual chapters examine various aspects of them from a variety of different viewpoints.