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The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution
Modern phylogenetic methods are increasingly being used to address questions about macro-level patterns in cultural evolution. These methods can illuminate the unobservable histories of cultural traits and identify the evolutionary drivers of trait change over time, but their application is not with...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8126464/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33993767 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0056 |
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author | Evans, Cara L. Greenhill, Simon J. Watts, Joseph List, Johann-Mattis Botero, Carlos A. Gray, Russell D. Kirby, Kathryn R. |
author_facet | Evans, Cara L. Greenhill, Simon J. Watts, Joseph List, Johann-Mattis Botero, Carlos A. Gray, Russell D. Kirby, Kathryn R. |
author_sort | Evans, Cara L. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Modern phylogenetic methods are increasingly being used to address questions about macro-level patterns in cultural evolution. These methods can illuminate the unobservable histories of cultural traits and identify the evolutionary drivers of trait change over time, but their application is not without pitfalls. Here, we outline the current scope of research in cultural tree thinking, highlighting a toolkit of best practices to navigate and avoid the pitfalls and ‘abuses' associated with their application. We emphasize two principles that support the appropriate application of phylogenetic methodologies in cross-cultural research: researchers should (1) draw on multiple lines of evidence when deciding if and which types of phylogenetic methods and models are suitable for their cross-cultural data, and (2) carefully consider how different cultural traits might have different evolutionary histories across space and time. When used appropriately phylogenetic methods can provide powerful insights into the processes of evolutionary change that have shaped the broad patterns of human history. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Foundations of cultural evolution'. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8126464 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | The Royal Society |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-81264642021-06-03 The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution Evans, Cara L. Greenhill, Simon J. Watts, Joseph List, Johann-Mattis Botero, Carlos A. Gray, Russell D. Kirby, Kathryn R. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci Part III: Deciphering the Patterns of Cultural Variation Modern phylogenetic methods are increasingly being used to address questions about macro-level patterns in cultural evolution. These methods can illuminate the unobservable histories of cultural traits and identify the evolutionary drivers of trait change over time, but their application is not without pitfalls. Here, we outline the current scope of research in cultural tree thinking, highlighting a toolkit of best practices to navigate and avoid the pitfalls and ‘abuses' associated with their application. We emphasize two principles that support the appropriate application of phylogenetic methodologies in cross-cultural research: researchers should (1) draw on multiple lines of evidence when deciding if and which types of phylogenetic methods and models are suitable for their cross-cultural data, and (2) carefully consider how different cultural traits might have different evolutionary histories across space and time. When used appropriately phylogenetic methods can provide powerful insights into the processes of evolutionary change that have shaped the broad patterns of human history. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Foundations of cultural evolution'. The Royal Society 2021-07-05 2021-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8126464/ /pubmed/33993767 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0056 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Part III: Deciphering the Patterns of Cultural Variation Evans, Cara L. Greenhill, Simon J. Watts, Joseph List, Johann-Mattis Botero, Carlos A. Gray, Russell D. Kirby, Kathryn R. The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution |
title | The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution |
title_full | The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution |
title_fullStr | The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution |
title_full_unstemmed | The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution |
title_short | The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution |
title_sort | uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution |
topic | Part III: Deciphering the Patterns of Cultural Variation |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8126464/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33993767 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0056 |
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