The Evolution of Cultural Complexity
Not by the Treadmill Alone
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2224940 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Claes Andersson (0000-0001-9819-2474), D Read (0000-0003-3125-0769) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 261-286 |
| Publication date | 2016-06-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/686317 |
| OpenAlex | W2345309591 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 113 |
Among the drivers and constraints on the evolution of complex hominin culture that have been proposed throughout the years, demographic factors have been particularly persistent, and they have recently again come to gain traction in the literature in the shape of the so-called treadmill model. The treadmill model connects cultural complexity to group size via a need to constantly "outrun a treadmill of cultural loss," whose backward motion is caused by errors in culture transmission. The entrenchment of the treadmill explanation of cultural complexity, however, takes place against a background of critiques of the model and the presence of other explanatory propositions. This creates a need for deentrenchment: wider integration, elaboration, and critique of the premises of the treadmill model and the evidence advanced to validate it. We begin by reviewing the treadmill model, making an assessment of its current status, and then moving on to a more synthetic proposition by placing the model into the context of other models addressing the elaboration of cultural complexity.We end by considering the broader implications for the study of the evolution of culture and of human behavior to be gained from more integrated modeling of the various factors affecting cultural complexity
Biology · Cognitive psychology · Context (archaeology · Cultural transmission in animals · Epistemology · Evolutionary biology · Proposition · Sociology · Treadmill · Computer Science · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · History · Medicine · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Primate Behavior and Ecology · Psychology
Cultural complexity and demography
Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity
Innovation rate and population structure moderate the effect of population size on cumulative technological culture
The Arrogation of Slavery
A Predictive Model for the Non-Destructive Assessment of Stone Age Silcrete Heat Treatment Strategies
Fire, temperature control, and silcrete heat treatment at Diepkloof and Mertenhof Rock Shelters, West Coast, South Africa
Why evolutionary biology needs anthropology
Information management and cultural evolution in Aboriginal Australia (In light of the cultural heterochrony hypothesis)
Fidelity and the Speed of the Treadmill
Exceptions to the rule? Ethnographic alternatives to cumulative cultural evolution
Chinese Prehistoric Eyed Bone Needles
The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis Facilitates Evolutionary Models of Culture Change
Demography and cultural complexity
Cultural adaptation is maximised when intelligent individuals rarely think for themselves
The evolution of 'culture
An experimental demonstration of the effect of group size on cultural accumulation
Innovation and Natural Selection in PaleoindianProjectile Points from the American Southwest
Origins and Revolutions
Archaeology of Ancient Australia
The Secret of Our Success
A unified theory of urban living
The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm
Human cumulative culture
Natural pedagogy
The building blocks of economic complexity
Experimental evidence for the influence of group size on cultural complexity
Ratcheting up the ratchet
Emulation, imitation, over-imitation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee
Hunter-Gatherer Inter-Band Interaction Rates
From hominins to humans
Selection and Covariance
The Diffusion of Microfinance
Natural pedagogy as evolutionary adaptation
An anthropological analysis of food-getting technology
The conditions of agricultural growth
Origins and ecological effects of early domestication in Iran and the Near East
Another Tasmanian Paradox
The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition
The accumulation of stochastic copying errors causes drift in culturally transmitted technologies
Hunter-gatherer economic complexity and “population pressure”
The selectivity of social learning and the tempo of cultural evolution
On Modeling Cognition and Culture
Articulating Babel
Stimulated Variation and Cascades
Site Disturbance and Archaeological Integrity
Understanding Cultural Evolutionary Models
Analysis of the Nature of Contacts with the Andaman Islands During the Last Two Millennia
The archaeological attributes of behaviour
Experimental series and use-wear in bone tools
The Prehistoric Development of Clothing
Environment and morphology in Australian Aborigines
Human Thought and Social Organization
Cultural transmission, copying errors, and the generation of variation in material culture and the archaeological record
The Early Mesoamerican Village
Energy source, protein metabolism, and hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies
Forty-Two Degrees South
Demography and Cultural Innovation
Raw material movement and past Tasmanian Aboriginal interaction
Clothing and modern human behaviour
The evolution and cultural transmission of percussive technology
Social organization and the evolution of cumulative technology in apes and hominins
Pre-History in Haiti
Study and replication of bone tools from Ksar Akil (Lebanon)
Technological Organization and Settlement Mobility
Demography and Cultural Evolution
Tasmanian Knowledge and Skill
The 'Simple Bone Point' of the Shell-Heaps of the Northeastern Algonkian Area and Its Probable Significance
Linking Observed Learning Patterns to the Evolution of Cultural Complexity
An Evolutionary Developmental Approach to Cultural Evolution
Population Size as an Explanation for Patterns in the Paleolithic Archaeological Record
The Animal That Therefore I Am (More to Follow)
Population Growth, Carrying Capacity, and Conflict
The Tortoise and the Hare
An Interaction Model for Resource Implement Complexity Based on Risk and Number of Annual Moves
Changes in the 'Connectedness' and Resilience of Paleolithic Societies in Mediterranean Ecosystems
Entangled
| Unique citing works | 15 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |