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The cophylogeny of populations and cultures: reconstructing the evolution of Iranian tribal craft traditions using trees and jungles

Tehrani, J.J.; Collard, M.; Shennan, S.J.

The cophylogeny of populations and cultures: reconstructing the evolution of Iranian tribal craft traditions using trees and jungles Thumbnail


Authors

M. Collard

S.J. Shennan



Abstract

Phylogenetic approaches to culture have shed new light on the role played by population dispersals in the spread and diversification of cultural traditions. However, the fact that cultural inheritance is based on separate mechanisms from genetic inheritance means that socially transmitted traditions have the potential to diverge from population histories. Here, we suggest that associations between these two systems can be reconstructed using techniques developed to study cospeciation between hosts and parasites and related problems in biology. Relationships among the latter are patterned by four main processes: co-divergence, intra-host speciation (duplication), intra-host extinction (sorting) and horizontal transfers. We show that patterns of cultural inheritance are structured by analogous processes, and then demonstrate the applicability of the host-parasite model to culture using empirical data on Iranian tribal populations.

Citation

Tehrani, J., Collard, M., & Shennan, S. (2010). The cophylogeny of populations and cultures: reconstructing the evolution of Iranian tribal craft traditions using trees and jungles. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 365(1559), 3865-3874. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0020

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Dec 12, 2010
Deposit Date Apr 25, 2014
Publicly Available Date Apr 30, 2014
Journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Print ISSN 0962-8436
Electronic ISSN 1471-2970
Publisher The Royal Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 365
Issue 1559
Pages 3865-3874
DOI https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0020
Keywords Cultural phylogenies, Population history, Coevolution, Cophylogeny, Cultural evolution, Iranian tribes.

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