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SUMMARY:Archaeology within a unified science of cultural evolution - Profe
 ssor Alex Mesoudi - University of Exeter
DTSTART:20231116T160000Z
DTEND:20231116T173000Z
UID:TALK205024@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Simon Carrignon
DESCRIPTION: I will provide an overview of modern cultural evolution theor
 y\, and suggest how archaeology fits into a unified science of cultural ev
 olution. Cultural evolution is the idea that cultural change constitutes a
 n inheritance process that bears some similarities with (but also differen
 ces to) genetic evolution. Cultural evolution researchers are interested i
 n the processes by which cultural traits (e.g. archaeological artifacts) c
 hange and diversify over time. Some of these processes are psychological\,
  such as tendencies to copy prestigious individuals or conform to group ma
 jorities\, others are material\, to do with the qualities of the traits be
 ing copied\, and others are demographic\, such as the effects of populatio
 n size and structure. I will illustrate some of these ideas by presenting 
 the results of past studies that have experimentally simulated patterns in
  the archaeological record. In the first\, participants designed virtual a
 rrowheads that could be copied by others\, testing hypotheses about prehis
 toric projectile point variation in North America. In the second\, partici
 pants designed and copied virtual handaxes\, testing whether changes obser
 ved in real handaxes are consistent with unintentional copying error or wh
 ether intentional\, directional change was important. The theory of cultur
 al evolution has the potential to unify the social sciences just as it has
  the natural sciences\, and archaeology stands to play a crucial role in t
 his unified science of cultural evolution.\n
LOCATION:McDonald Institute Seminar Room
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