Publications by year
In Press
Walker L, Ontiri E, Campenni M, Perret C, Currie T (In Press). Multilevel Cultural Landscapes in Natural Resource Governance: a case study of community conservancies in Northern Kenya. Institutional Evolution & Organizational Complexity
2024
Currie TE, Borgerhoff Mulder M, Fogarty L, Schlüter M, Folke C, Haider LJ, Caniglia G, Tavoni A, Jansen REV, Jørgensen PS, et al (2024). Integrating evolutionary theory and social-ecological systems research to address the sustainability challenges of the Anthropocene.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci,
379(1893).
Abstract:
Integrating evolutionary theory and social-ecological systems research to address the sustainability challenges of the Anthropocene.
The rapid, human-induced changes in the Earth system during the Anthropocene present humanity with critical sustainability challenges. Social-ecological systems (SES) research provides multiple approaches for understanding the complex interactions between humans, social systems, and environments and how we might direct them towards healthier and more resilient futures. However, general theories of SES change have yet to be fully developed. Formal evolutionary theory has been applied as a dynamic theory of change of complex phenomena in biology and the social sciences, but rarely in SES research. In this paper, we explore the connections between both fields, hoping to foster collaboration. After sketching out the distinct intellectual traditions of SES research and evolutionary theory, we map some of their terminological and theoretical connections. We then provide examples of how evolutionary theory might be incorporated into SES research through the use of systems mapping to identify evolutionary processes in SES, the application of concepts from evolutionary developmental biology to understand the connections between systems changes and evolutionary changes, and how evolutionary thinking may help design interventions for beneficial change. Integrating evolutionary theory and SES research can lead to a better understanding of SES changes and positive interventions for a more sustainable Anthropocene. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'.
Abstract.
Author URL.
2023
Perret C, Currie TE (2023). Modelling the role of environmental circumscription in the evolution of inequality.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci,
378(1883).
Abstract:
Modelling the role of environmental circumscription in the evolution of inequality.
Circumscription theory proposes that complex hierarchical societies emerged in areas surrounded by barriers to dispersal, e.g. mountains or seas. This theory has been widely influential but the lack of formal modelling has resulted in theoretical and empirical challenges. This theory shares parallels with reproductive skew models from evolutionary ecology where inequality depends on the capacity of subordinates to escape from despotic leaders. Building on these similarities, we extend reproductive skew models to simulate the concurrent evolution of inequality in many connected groups. Our results show that cost of migration does not directly limit inequality in the long term, but it does control the rate of increase in inequality. Second, we show that levels of inequality can be reduced if there are random errors made by dominants, as these lead to variations that propagate between polities. Third, our model clarifies the concept of circumscription by relating it to geographical features: the size of a region and the connectivity between polities. Overall, our model helps clarify some issues about how migration may affect inequality. We discuss our results in the light of anthropological and archaeological evidence and present the future extensions required to build towards a complete model of circumscription theory. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary ecology of inequality'.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Powers ST, Perret C, Currie TE (2023). Playing the political game: the coevolution of institutions with group size and political inequality.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci,
378(1883).
Abstract:
Playing the political game: the coevolution of institutions with group size and political inequality.
All societies need to form institutional rules to regulate their social interactions. These specify what actions individuals should take in particular situations, and what sanctions will apply if individuals violate these rules. However, forming these institutional rules involves playing a political game-a process of negotiation between individuals that is costly and time-consuming. Intuitively, this cost should be expected to increase as a group becomes larger, which could then select for a transition to hierarchy to keep the cost of playing the political game down as group size increases. However, previous work has lacked a mechanistic yet general model of political games that could formalize this argument and test the conditions under which it holds. We address this by formalizing the political game using a standard consensus formation model. We show that the increasing cost of forming a consensus over institutional rules selects for a transition from egalitarian to hierarchical organization over a wide range of conditions. Playing a political game to form institutional rules in this way captures and unites a previously disparate set of voluntary theories for hierarchy formation, and can explain why the increasing group size in the Neolithic would lead to strong political inequality. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary ecology of inequality'.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Currie TE, Perret C (2023). The Cultural Evolution of Sociopolitical Organization. In (Ed) The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution, Oxford University Press (OUP), c53s1-c53n2.
Rabinovich A, Walker L, Gohil D, Njagi T, Currie TE (2023). Willingness to cooperate in shared natural resource management is linked to group identification through perceived efficacy and group norms. Environmental Research Letters, 18(5).
2022
Flitton A, Currie TE (2022). Assessing different historical pathways in the cultural evolution of economic development.
Evolution and Human Behavior,
43(1), 71-82.
Abstract:
Assessing different historical pathways in the cultural evolution of economic development
A huge number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain the substantial diversity in economic performance we see in the present-day. There has been a growing appreciation that historical and ecological factors have contributed to social and economic development. However, it is not clear whether such factors have exerted a direct effect on modern productivity, or whether they influence economies indirectly by shaping the cultural evolution of norms and institutions. Here we analyse a global cross-national dataset to test between hypotheses involving a number of different ecological, historical, and proximate social factors and a range of direct and indirect pathways. We show that the historical timing of agriculture predicts the timing of the emergence of statehood, which in turn affects economic development indirectly through its effect on institutions. Ecological factors appear to affect economic performance indirectly through their historical effects on the development of agriculture and by shaping patterns of European settler colonization. More effective institutional performance is also predicted by lower-levels of in-group bias which itself appears related to the proportion of a nation's population that descends from European countries. These results support the idea that cultural evolutionary processes have been important in shaping the social norms and institutions that enable large-scale cooperation and economic growth in present-day societies.
Abstract.
Gavrilets S, Currie TE (2022). Mathematical models of the evolution of institutions.
Savage PE, Passmore S, Chiba G, Currie TE, Suzuki H, Atkinson QD (2022). Sequence alignment of folk song melodies reveals cross-cultural regularities of musical evolution.
Curr Biol,
32(6), 1395-1402.e8.
Abstract:
Sequence alignment of folk song melodies reveals cross-cultural regularities of musical evolution.
Culture evolves,1-5 but the existence of cross-culturally general regularities of cultural evolution is debated.6-8 As a diverse but universal cultural phenomenon, music provides a novel domain to test for the existence of such regularities.9-12 Folk song melodies can be thought of as culturally transmitted sequences of notes that change over time under the influence of cognitive and acoustic/physical constraints.9-15 Modeling melodies as evolving sequences constructed from an "alphabet" of 12 scale degrees16 allows us to quantitatively test for the presence of cross-cultural regularities using a sample of 10,062 melodies from musically divergent Japanese and English (British/American) folk song traditions.17,18 Our analysis identifies 328 pairs of highly related melodies, finding that note changes are more likely when they have smaller impacts on a song's melody. Specifically, (1) notes with stronger rhythmic functions are less likely to change, and (2) note substitutions are most likely between neighboring notes. We also find that note insertions/deletions ("indels") are more common than note substitutions, unlike genetic evolution where the reverse is true. Our results are consistent across English and Japanese samples despite major differences in their scales and tonal systems. These findings demonstrate that even a creative art form such as music is subject to evolutionary constraints analogous to those governing the evolution of genes, languages, and other domains of culture.
Abstract.
Author URL.
2021
Turchin P, Currie T, Collins C, Levine J, Oyebamiji O, Edwards NR, Holden PB, Hoyer D, Feeney K, François P, et al (2021). An integrative approach to estimating productivity in past societies using Seshat: Global History Databank.
Holocene,
31(6), 1055-1065.
Abstract:
An integrative approach to estimating productivity in past societies using Seshat: Global History Databank
This article reports the results of a collaborative effort to estimate agricultural productivities in past societies using Seshat: Global History Databank. We focus on 30 Natural Geographic Areas (NGAs) distributed over 10 major world regions (Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Central Eurasia, North America, South America, and Oceania). The conceptual framework that we use to obtain these estimates combines the influences of the production technologies (and how they change with time), climate change, and effects of artificial selection into a Relative Yield Coefficient, indicating how agricultural productivity changed over time in each NGA between the Neolithic and the 20th century. We then use estimates of historical yield in each NGA to translate the Relative Yield Coefficient into an Estimated Yield (tonnes per hectare per year) trajectory. We tested the proposed methodology in two ways. For eight NGAs, in which we had more than one historical yield estimate, we used the earliest estimate to anchor the trajectory and compared the ensuing trajectory to the remaining estimates. We also compared the end points of the estimated NGA trajectories to the earliest (the 1960s decade) FAO data on crop productivities in the modern countries encompassing Seshat NGAs. We discuss the benefits of this methodology over previous efforts to estimate agricultural productivities in world history.
Abstract.
Currie T, Campenni M, Ontiri E, Njagi T, Perret C, Walker L (2021). Code supporting the Cultural Evolution & Ecology of Institutions.
Abstract:
Code supporting the Cultural Evolution & Ecology of Institutions
See ReadMe file for information
Abstract.
Matsumae H, Ranacher P, Savage PE, Blasi DE, Currie TE, Koganebuchi K, Nishida N, Sato T, Tanabe H, Tajima A, et al (2021). Exploring correlations in genetic and cultural variation across language families in northeast Asia.
Sci Adv,
7(34).
Abstract:
Exploring correlations in genetic and cultural variation across language families in northeast Asia.
Culture evolves in ways that are analogous to, but distinct from, genomes. Previous studies examined similarities between cultural variation and genetic variation (population history) at small scales within language families, but few studies have empirically investigated these parallels across language families using diverse cultural data. We report an analysis comparing culture and genomes from in and around northeast Asia spanning 11 language families. We extract and summarize the variation in language (grammar, phonology, lexicon), music (song structure, performance style), and genomes (genome-wide SNPs) and test for correlations. We find that grammatical structure correlates with population history (genetic history). Recent contact and shared descent fail to explain the signal, suggesting relationships that arose before the formation of current families. Our results suggest that grammar might be a cultural indicator of population history while also demonstrating differences among cultural and genetic relationships that highlight the complex nature of human history.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Whitehouse H, François P, Savage PE, Currie TE, Feeney KC, Cioni E, Purcell R, Ross RM, Larson J, Baines J, et al (2021). Retraction Note: Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history.
Nature,
595(7866).
Author URL.
Currie T, Campenni M, Ontiri E, Njagi T, Perret C, Walker L (2021). The Cultural Evolution & Ecology of Institutions.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,
376, 20200047-20200047.
Abstract:
The Cultural Evolution & Ecology of Institutions
Human societies are structured by what we refer to as ‘institutions’, which are socially created and culturally inherited proscriptions on behaviour that define roles and set expectations about social interactions. The study of institutions in several social science fields has provided many important insights that have not been fully appreciated in the evolutionary human sciences. However, such research has often lacked a shared understanding of general processes of change that shape institutional diversity across space and time. We argue that evolutionary theory can provide a useful framework for synthesizing information from different disciplines to address issues such as how and why institutions change over time, how institutional rules co-evolve with other culturally inherited traits, and the role that ecological factors might play in shaping institutional diversity. We argue that we can gain important insights by applying cultural evolutionary thinking to the study of institutions, but that we also need to expand and adapt our approaches to better handle the ways that institutions work, and how they might change over time. In this paper, we illustrate our approach by describing macro-scale empirical comparative analyses that demonstrate how evolutionary theory can be used to generate and test hypotheses about the processes that have shaped some of the major patterns we see in institutional diversity over time and across the world today. We then go on to discuss how we might usefully develop micro-scale models of institutional change by adapting concepts from game theory and agent-based modelling. We end by considering current challenges and areas for future research, and the potential implications for other areas of study and real-world applications
Abstract.
2020
Whitehouse H, Turchin P, François P, Savage PE, Currie TE, Feeney KC, Cioni E, Purcell R, Ross RM, Larson J, et al (2020). A New Era in the Study of Global History is Born but it Needs to be Nurtured. Journal of Cognitive Historiography, 0(0), 142-158.
Collins C, Oyebamiji O, Edwards NR, Holden PB, Williams A, Jordan G, Hoyer D, Grohman S, Savage PE, Francois P, et al (2020). Combining historical and archaeological data with crop models to estimate agricultural productivity in past societies.
Currie TE, Turchin P, Turner E, Gavrilets S (2020). Duration of agriculture and distance from the steppe predict the evolution of large-scale human societies in Afro-Eurasia.
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications,
7(1).
Abstract:
Duration of agriculture and distance from the steppe predict the evolution of large-scale human societies in Afro-Eurasia
Understanding why large, complex human societies have emerged and persisted more readily in certain regions of the world than others is an issue of long-standing debate. Here, we systematically test different hypotheses involving the social and ecological factors that may ultimately promote or inhibit the formation of large, complex human societies. We employ spatially explicit statistical analyses using data on the geographical and temporal distribution of the largest human groups over a 3000-year period of history. The results support the predictions of two complementary hypotheses, indicating that large-scale societies developed more commonly in regions where (i) agriculture has been practiced for longer (thus providing more time for the norms and institutions that facilitate large-scale organisation to emerge), and (ii) warfare was more intense (as proxied by distance from the Eurasian steppe), thus creating a stronger selection pressure for societies to scale up. We found no support for the influential idea that large-scale societies were more common in those regions naturally endowed with a higher potential for productive agriculture. Our study highlights how modern cultural evolutionary theory can be used to organise and synthesise alternative hypotheses and shed light on the ways ecological and social processes have interacted to shape the complex social world we live in today.
Abstract.
Savage PE, Passmore S, Chiba G, Currie TE, Suzuki H, Atkinson Q (2020). Sequence alignment of folk song melodies reveals cross-cultural regularities of musical evolution.
2019
Whitehouse H, François P, Savage PE, Currie TE, Feeney K, Cioni E, Purcell R, Ross RM, Larson J, Baines J, et al (2019). A new era in the study of global history is born but it needs to be nurtured.
Turchin P, Currie TE, Collins C, Levine J, Oyebamiji O, Edwards NR, Holden PB, Hoyer D, Feeney K, Francois P, et al (2019). An Integrative Approach to Estimating Productivity in Past Societies using Seshat: Global History Databank.
Whitehouse H, François P, Savage PE, Currie TE, Feeney KC, Cioni E, Purcell R, Ross RM, Larson J, Baines J, et al (2019). Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history.
Nature,
568(7751), 226-229.
Abstract:
Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history
The origins of religion and of complex societies represent evolutionary puzzles1–8. The ‘moralizing gods’ hypothesis offers a solution to both puzzles by proposing that belief in morally concerned supernatural agents culturally evolved to facilitate cooperation among strangers in large-scale societies9–13. Although previous research has suggested an association between the presence of moralizing gods and social complexity3,6,7,9–18, the relationship between the two is disputed9–13,19–24, and attempts to establish causality have been hampered by limitations in the availability of detailed global longitudinal data. To overcome these limitations, here we systematically coded records from 414 societies that span the past 10,000 years from 30 regions around the world, using 51 measures of social complexity and 4 measures of supernatural enforcement of morality. Our analyses not only confirm the association between moralizing gods and social complexity, but also reveal that moralizing gods follow—rather than precede—large increases in social complexity. Contrary to previous predictions9,12,16,18, powerful moralizing ‘big gods’ and prosocial supernatural punishment tend to appear only after the emergence of ‘megasocieties’ with populations of more than around one million people. Moralizing gods are not a prerequisite for the evolution of social complexity, but they may help to sustain and expand complex multi-ethnic empires after they have become established. By contrast, rituals that facilitate the standardization of religious traditions across large populations25,26 generally precede the appearance of moralizing gods. This suggests that ritual practices were more important than the particular content of religious belief to the initial rise of social complexity.
Abstract.
Matsumae H, Ranacher P, Savage PE, Blasi DE, Currie TE, Kognebuchi K, Nishida N, Sato T, Tanabe H, Tajima A, et al (2019). Exploring correlations in genetic and cultural variation across language families in Northeast Asia.
Currie TE, Turchin P, Gavrilets S (2019). History of agriculture and intensity of warfare shaped the evolution of large-scale human societies in Afro-Eurasia.
Currie T (2019). How the Dual Inheritance of Genes and Culture Shapes Behaviour: a Critical Review with a Focus on Human Culture and Behavioural Diversity. In Hunt J, Hosken D, Wedell N (Eds.)
Genes and Behaviour: Beyond Nature‐Nurture, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 27-59.
Abstract:
How the Dual Inheritance of Genes and Culture Shapes Behaviour: a Critical Review with a Focus on Human Culture and Behavioural Diversity
Abstract.
Ontiri EM, Odino M, Kasanga A, Kahumbu P, Robinson LW, Currie T, Hodgson DJ (2019). Maasai pastoralists kill lions in retaliation for depredation of livestock by lions.
People and Nature,
1(1), 59-69.
Abstract:
Maasai pastoralists kill lions in retaliation for depredation of livestock by lions
Abstract
The borders of national parks in Kenya are hotspots for human–wildlife conflict. The deliberate killing of lions by Maasai pastoralists is illegal, but continues despite mitigation attempts. Currently, there is a somewhat pervasive opinion, within the human–wildlife conflict literature, that lions are killed by Maasai people either as cultural ceremony or indiscriminately in response to the loss of livestock.
We reconsider the indiscriminate reputation of lion‐killing, using a combination of structured dialogue and quantitative analysis. Focus group discussions with Maasai pastoralists in three different pastoral regions, performed by in‐country experts, minimized the risk of cross‐cultural misinterpretation through a platform of shared Kenyan heritage.
In our survey of 213 Maasai pastoralist communities, we found universal agreement that humans and lions should coexist in Kenya.
Maasai communities distinguished among drought, disease, theft, loss and depredation as drivers of livestock losses. Maasai also distinguished among predatory species that take their livestock. The only cause of livestock loss that provoked increased killing of lions, was depredation by lions. Lion‐killing was not provoked by other predatory species. We found regional variation in the baseline probability of lion‐killing, and discuss the sources of this variation.
The probability of lion‐killing increases as an act of retribution for predation of livestock that discriminates among species of carnivore. This, coupled with universal acceptance of coexistence between lions and Maasai pastoralists, should guide mitigation strategies for human–wildlife interactions in Kenya and beyond.
A plain language summary is available for this article.
Abstract.
Savage PE, Whitehouse H, François P, Currie TE, Feeney K, Cioni E, Purcell R, Ross RM, Larson J, Baines J, et al (2019). Reply to Beheim et al.: Reanalyses confirm robustness of original analyses.
Walker L, Avery K, Borgerhoff Mulder M, Gohil D, King J, Lalampaa T, Letaapo T, Moiko S, Njeru Njagi T, Ontiri E, et al (2019).
Supporting community-based natural resource management in pastoralist societies in East Africa to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.Abstract:
Supporting community-based natural resource management in pastoralist societies in East Africa to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Abstract.
Flitton A (2019). The Cultural Evolution of Economic Development.
Abstract:
The Cultural Evolution of Economic Development
Economic development has several stages, from the exchange of tools and weapons in prehistory, to the adoption of money systems, to globalised economies driven by digitally-represented currencies. These stages present different challenges to societies, but also common ones. Perhaps the most important of these is cooperation. Exchange puts parties in positions vulnerable to exploitation, as they have to give payment in anticipation of goods, or goods in anticipation of payment. At its origin, money use creates a similar situation in which a party gives up valuable objects for a promise of future repayment. Explaining the diversity in economic performance and money systems therefore requires consideration of ecological and cultural factors that shape the levels of cooperation in societies. History can also have an influence on this diversity. Events in a society’s history can have persistent effects on its culture and institutions, and more general patterns of shared history can determine how culturally similar societies are. A cultural evolutionary framework can be used to synthesise these different factors as part of the same explanation. Historical experiences, the ecology and cultural traits all shape variation in each other and create conditions that determine the adaptiveness of cooperation, and therefore the potential for money use and large-scale economic activity to emerge and spread. Using a multiple method and multiple hypothesis approach, in this thesis I seek to examine existing theories for variation in economic development and money use, and generate and test new hypotheses using a cultural evolutionary framework.
Abstract.
2018
Mullins DA, Hoyer D, Collins C, Currie T, Feeney K, François P, Savage PE, Whitehouse H, Turchin P (2018). A Systematic Assessment of “Axial Age” Proposals Using Global Comparative Historical Evidence.
American Sociological Review,
83(3), 596-626.
Abstract:
A Systematic Assessment of “Axial Age” Proposals Using Global Comparative Historical Evidence
Proponents of the Axial Age contend that parallel cultural developments between 800 and 200 BCE in what is today China, Greece, India, Iran, and Israel-Palestine constitute the global historical turning point toward modernity. The Axial Age concept is well-known and influential, but deficiencies in the historical evidence and sociological analysis available have thwarted efforts to evaluate the concept’s major global contentions. As a result, the Axial Age concept remains controversial. Seshat: Global History Databank provides new tools for examining this topic in social formations across Afro-Eurasia during the first two millennia BCE and first millennium CE, allowing scholars to empirically evaluate the varied and contrasting claims researchers have put forward. Results undercut the notion of a specific “age” of axiality limited to a specific geo-temporal localization. Critical traits offered as evidence of an axial transformation by proponents of the Axial Age concept appeared across Afro-Eurasia hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of years prior to the proposed Axial Age. Our analysis raises important questions for future evaluations of this period and points the way toward empirically-led, historical-sociological investigations of the ideological and institutional foundations of complex societies.
Abstract.
Ellis S, Franks DW, Nattrass S, Currie TE, Cant MA, Giles D, Balcomb KC, Croft DP (2018). Analyses of ovarian activity reveal repeated evolution of post-reproductive lifespans in toothed whales.
Scientific Reports,
8(1).
Abstract:
Analyses of ovarian activity reveal repeated evolution of post-reproductive lifespans in toothed whales
In most species the reproductive system ages at the same rate as somatic tissue and individuals continue reproducing until death. However, females of three species – humans, killer whales and short-finned pilot whales – have been shown to display a markedly increased rate of reproductive senescence relative to somatic ageing. In these species, a significant proportion of females live beyond their reproductive lifespan: they have a post-reproductive lifespan. Research into this puzzling life-history strategy is hindered by the difficulties of quantifying the rate of reproductive senescence in wild populations. Here we present a method for measuring the relative rate of reproductive senescence in toothed whales using published physiological data. of the sixteen species for which data are available (which does not include killer whales), we find that three have a significant post-reproductive lifespan: short-finned pilot whales, beluga whales and narwhals. Phylogenetic reconstruction suggests that female post-reproductive lifespans have evolved several times independently in toothed whales. Our study is the first evidence of a significant post-reproductive lifespan in beluga whales and narwhals which, when taken together with the evidence for post-reproductive lifespan in killer whales, doubles the number of non-human mammals known to exhibit post-reproductive lifespans in the wild.
Abstract.
Peregrine PN, Brennan R, Currie T, Feeney K, François P, Turchin P, Whitehouse H (2018). Dacura: a new solution to data harvesting and knowledge extraction for the historical sciences.
Historical Methods,
51(3), 165-174.
Abstract:
Dacura: a new solution to data harvesting and knowledge extraction for the historical sciences
New advances in computer science address problems historical scientists face in gathering and evaluating the now vast data sources available through the Internet. As an example we introduce Dacura, a dataset curation platform designed to assist historical researchers in harvesting, evaluating, and curating high-quality information sets from the Internet and other sources. Dacura uses semantic knowledge graph technology to represent data as complex, inter-related knowledge allowing rapid search and retrieval of highly specific data without the need of a lookup table. Dacura automates the generation of tools to help non-experts curate high quality knowledge bases over time and to integrate data from multiple sources into its curated knowledge model. Together these features allow rapid harvesting and automated evaluation of Internet resources. We provide an example of Dacura in practice as the software employed to populate and manage the Seshat databank.
Abstract.
Francis ML, Plummer KE, Lythgoe BA, Macallan C, Currie TE, Blount JD (2018). Effects of supplementary feeding on interspecific dominance hierarchies in garden birds.
PLoS ONE,
13(9).
Abstract:
Effects of supplementary feeding on interspecific dominance hierarchies in garden birds
Individuals often differ in competitive ability, which can lead to the formation of a dominance hierarchy that governs differential access to resources. Previous studies of dominance have predominently focussed on within-species interactions, while the drivers of between-species competitive hierarchies are poorly understood. The increasing prevalence of predictable anthropogenic food subsidies, such as that provided by garden bird feeders, is likely to intensify between-species competition. However, the consequences for resource acquisition await detailed study, and in particular, whether competitive interactions are influenced by food quality is not known. Here, we examine competitive interactions amongst ten passerine species of birds utilising supplementary food sources of differing quality. We show that dominance rank is strongly predicted by body mass across species. Socially dominant, heavier species monopolised access to a food that had a relatively short handling time (sunflower hearts), spent longer on supplementary feeders, and pecked at lower rates. In contrast subordinate, lighter species were constrained to feed on a food that had a relatively long handling time (sunflower seeds with the hull intact). Our findings suggest that differences in body mass may result in between-species dominance hierarchies that place the heaviest species in the greatest control of supplementary feeding sites, gaining superior access to higher value foods. This may have important implications for the use of supplementary feeding as a conservation tool.
Abstract.
Turchin P, Whitehouse H, Korotayev A, Francois P, Hoyer D, Peregrine P, Feinman G, Spencer C, Kradin N, Currie TE, et al (2018). Evolutionary Pathways to Statehood: Old Theories and New Data.
Flitton A, Currie TE (2018). Long-run historical and ecological determinants of economic development mediated by the cultural evolution of effective institutions.
Turchin P, Currie TE, Whitehouse H, Francois P, Feeney K, Mullins D, Hoyer D, Collins C, Grohmann S, Savage P, et al (2018). Quantitative historical analysis uncovers a single dimension of complexity that structures global variation in human social organization.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
115(2), E144-E151.
Author URL.
Currie TE, Turchin P, Whitehouse H, François P, Feeney K, Mullins D, Hoyer D, Collins C, Grohmann S, Savage P, et al (2018). Reply to tosh et al.: Quantitative analyses of cultural evolution require engagement with historical and archaeological research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(26), E5841-E5842.
2017
Mullins DA, Hoyer D, Collins C, Currie TE, Feeney K, François P, Savage PE, Whitehouse H, Turchin P (2017). A systematic assessment of 'Axial Age' proposals using global comparative historical evidence.
2016
Francois P, Manning JG, Whitehouse H, Brennan R, Currie TE, Feeney K, Turchin P (2016). A Macroscope for Global History: Seshat Global History Databank, a methodological overview. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 10
Brennan R, Feeney K, Mendel-Gleason G, Bozic B, Turchin P, Whitehouse H, Francois P, Currie TE, Grohmann S (2016). Building the Seshat ontology for a global history databank.
Abstract:
Building the Seshat ontology for a global history databank
Abstract.
Turchin P, Currie TE (2016). Cultural group selection is plausible, but the predictions of its hypotheses should be tested with real-world data.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences,
39Abstract:
Cultural group selection is plausible, but the predictions of its hypotheses should be tested with real-world data
The evidence compiled in the target article demonstrates that the assumptions of cultural group selection (CGS) theory are often met and it is therefore a useful framework for generating plausible hypotheses. However more can be said about how we can test the predictions of CGS hypotheses against competing explanations using historical archaeological and anthropological data.
Abstract.
Currie TE, turchin P, Bednar J, Richerson PJ, Schwesinger G, Steinmo S, Wacziarg R, Wallis J (2016). Evolution of institutions and organizations. In (Ed) Complexity and Evolution Toward a New Synthesis for Economics, MIT Press.
Turchin P, Currie TE, Turner EAL (2016). Mapping the spread of mounted warfare.
Cliodynamics,
7(2), 217-227.
Abstract:
Mapping the spread of mounted warfare
Military technology is one of the most important factors affecting the evolution of complex societies. In particular, mounted warfare, the use of horse-riders in military operations, revolutionized war as it spread to different parts of Eurasia and Africa during the Ancient and Medieval eras, and to the Americas during the Early Modern period. Here we use a variety of sources to map this spread.
Abstract.
2015
Currie TE, Bogaard A, Cesaretti R, Edwards N, Francois P, Holden P, Hoyer D, Korotayev A, Manning J, Moreno Garcia JC, et al (2015). Agricultural productivity in past societies: Toward an empirically informed model for testing cultural evolutionary hypotheses.
Cliodynamics: the Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution,
6(1).
Abstract:
Agricultural productivity in past societies: Toward an empirically informed model for testing cultural evolutionary hypotheses
Agricultural productivity, and its variation in space and time, plays a fundamental role in many theories of human social evolution. However, we often lack systematic information about the productivity of past agricultural systems on a large enough scale in order to be able to test these theories properly. The effect of climate on crop yields has received a great deal of attention resulting in a range of empirical and process-based models, yet the focus has primarily been on current or future conditions. In this paper, we argue for a “bottom-up” approach that estimates productivity, or potential productivity based on information about the agricultural practices and technologies used in past societies. of key theoretical interest is using this information to estimate the carrying capacity of a given region, independently of estimates of population size. We outline how explicit crop yield models can be combined with high quality historical and archaeological information about past societies, in order to infer the temporal and geographic patterns of change in agricultural productivity and potential. We discuss the kinds of information we need to collect about agricultural techniques and practices in the past, and introduce a new databank initiative we have developed for collating the best available historical and archaeological evidence. A key benefit of our approach lies in making explicit the steps in the process of estimating past productivities and carrying capacities, and in being able to assess the effects of different modelling assumptions. This is undoubtedly an ambitious task, yet promises to provide important insights into fundamental aspects of past societies, and will enable us to test more rigorously key hypotheses about human socio-cultural evolution.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Watts J, Greenhill SJ, Atkinson QD, Currie TE, Bulbulia J, Gray RD (2015). Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES,
282(1804).
Author URL.
Bell AV, Currie TE, Irwin G, Bradbury C (2015). DRIVING FACTORS IN THE COLONIZATION OF OCEANIA: DEVELOPING ISLAND-LEVEL STATISTICAL MODELS TO TEST COMPETING HYPOTHESES.
AMERICAN ANTIQUITY,
80(2), 397-407.
Author URL.
Savage PE, Matsumae H, Oota H, Stoneking M, Currie TE, Tajima A, Gillan M, Brown S (2015). How ‘Circumpolar’ is Ainu Music? Musical and Genetic Perspectives on the History of the Japanese Archipelago. Ethnomusicology Forum, 24(3), 443-467.
Turchin P, Brennan R, Currie T, Feeney K, Francois P, Hoyer D, Manning J, Marciniak A, Mullins D, Palmisano A, et al (2015). Seshat: the Global History Databank.
Cliodynamics: the Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution,
6(1).
Abstract:
Seshat: the Global History Databank
The vast amount of knowledge about past human societies has not been systematically organized and, therefore, remains inaccessible for empirically testing theories about cultural evolution and historical dynamics. For example, what evolutionary mechanisms were involved in the transition from the small-scale, uncentralized societies, in which humans lived 10,000 years ago, to the large-scale societies with an extensive division of labor, great differentials in wealth and power, and elaborate governance structures of today? Why do modern states sometimes fail to meet the basic needs of their populations? Why do economies decline, or fail to grow? in this article, we describe the structure and uses of a massive databank of historical and archaeological information, Seshat: the Global History Databank. The data that we are currently entering in Seshat will allow us and others to test theories explaining how modern societies evolved from ancestral ones, and why modern societies vary so much in their capacity to satisfy their members’ basic human needs.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Savage PE, Brown S, Sakai E, Currie TE (2015). Statistical universals reveal the structures and functions of human music.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,
112(29), 8987-8992.
Abstract:
Statistical universals reveal the structures and functions of human music.
Music has been called "the universal language of mankind." Although contemporary theories of music evolution often invoke various musical universals, the existence of such universals has been disputed for decades and has never been empirically demonstrated. Here we combine a music-classification scheme with statistical analyses, including phylogenetic comparative methods, to examine a well-sampled global set of 304 music recordings. Our analyses reveal no absolute universals but strong support for many statistical universals that are consistent across all nine geographic regions sampled. These universals include 18 musical features that are common individually as well as a network of 10 features that are commonly associated with one another. They span not only features related to pitch and rhythm that are often cited as putative universals but also rarely cited domains including performance style and social context. These cross-cultural structural regularities of human music may relate to roles in facilitating group coordination and cohesion, as exemplified by the universal tendency to sing, play percussion instruments, and dance to simple, repetitive music in groups. Our findings highlight the need for scientists studying music evolution to expand the range of musical cultures and musical features under consideration. The statistical universals we identified represent important candidates for future investigation.
Abstract.
Author URL.
2014
Currie TE (2014). Developing Scales of Development.
Cliodynamics: the Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution,
5(1).
Abstract:
Developing Scales of Development
A review essay on the Measure of Civilization by Ian Morris (Princeton University Press)
Abstract.
Author URL.
Currie TE, Mace R (2014). Evolution of cultural traits occurs at similar relative rates in different world regions.
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences,
281(1795).
Abstract:
Evolution of cultural traits occurs at similar relative rates in different world regions
Thomas E. Currie1,2⇑ and Ruth Mace21Department of Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR10 9EZ, UK2Department of Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton St. London WC1H 0BH, UKe-mail: t.currie{at}exeter.ac.ukAbstract a fundamental issue in understanding human diversity is whether or not there are regular patterns and processes involved in cultural change. Theoretical and mathematical models of cultural evolution have been developed and are increasingly being used and assessed in empirical analyses. Here, we test the hypothesis that the rates of change of features of human socio-cultural organization are governed by general rules. One prediction of this hypothesis is that different cultural traits will tend to evolve at similar relative rates in different world regions, despite the unique historical backgrounds of groups inhabiting these regions. We used phylogenetic comparative methods and systematic cross-cultural data to assess how different socio-cultural traits changed in (i) island southeast Asia and the Pacific, and (ii) sub-Saharan Africa. The relative rates of change in these two regions are significantly correlated. Furthermore, cultural traits that are more directly related to external environmental conditions evolve more slowly than traits related to social structures. This is consistent with the idea that a form of purifying selection is acting with greater strength on these more environmentally linked traits. These results suggest that despite contingent historical events and the role of humans as active agents in the historical process, culture does indeed evolve in ways that can be predicted from general principles cultural evolutioncultural phylogeneticssocial evolutionphylogenetic comparative methodsReceived July 7, 2014.Accepted September 9, 2014.© 2014 the Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Currie TE, Meade A (2014). Keeping Yourself Updated: Bayesian Approaches in Phylogenetic Comparative Methods with a Focus on Markov Chain Models of Discrete Character Evolution. In Garamszegi LZ (Ed) Modern Phylogenetic Comparative Methods and Their Application in Evolutionary Biology, Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Opie C, Shultz S, Atkinson QD, Currie T, Mace R (2014). Phylogenetic reconstruction of Bantu kinship challenges Main Sequence Theory of human social evolution.
Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesAbstract:
Phylogenetic reconstruction of Bantu kinship challenges Main Sequence Theory of human social evolution
Kinship provides the fundamental structure of human society: descent determines the inheritance pattern between generations, whereas residence rules govern the location a couple moves to after they marry. In turn, descent and residence patterns determine other key relationships such as alliance, trade, and marriage partners. Hunter-gatherer kinship patterns are viewed as flexible, whereas agricultural societies are thought to have developed much more stable kinship patterns as they expanded during the Holocene. Among the Bantu farmers of sub-Saharan Africa, the ancestral kinship patterns present at the beginning of the expansion are hotly contested, with some arguing for matrilineal and matrilocal patterns, whereas others maintain that any kind of lineality or sex-biased dispersal only emerged much later. Here, we use Bayesian phylogenetic methods to uncover the history of Bantu kinship patterns and trace the interplay between descent and residence systems. The results suggest a number of switches in both descent and residence patterns as Bantu farming spread, but that the first Bantu populations were patrilocal with patrilineal descent. Across the phylogeny, a change in descent triggered a switch away from patrifocal kinship, whereas a change in residence triggered a switch back from matrifocal kinship. These results challenge “Main Sequence Theory,” which maintains that changes in residence rules precede change in other social structures. We also indicate the trajectory of kinship change, shedding new light on how this fundamental structure of society developed as farming spread across the globe during the Neolithic.
Abstract.
Turchin P, Currie T, Turner EAL, Gavrilets S (2014). Reply to Thomas: Diffusion of military technologies is a plausible explanation for the evolution of social complexity, 1500 BCE–AD 1500. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, E415-E415.
2013
Currie TE (2013). Cultural Evolution Branches Out: the Phylogenetic Approach in Cross-Cultural Research.
Cross-Cultural Research,
47(2), 102-130.
Abstract:
Cultural Evolution Branches Out: the Phylogenetic Approach in Cross-Cultural Research
Recently there has been a movement in the social sciences to apply theories and methods developed originally in evolutionary biology to understand human behavior and cultural change. In this article, I highlight an ever growing branch of this research that analyzes cultural data using a suite of techniques based on evolutionary trees. These phylogenetic methods fall into two categories: (a) "tree-building" that is, inferring the historical relationships between units, and (b) comparative analyses that is, mapping other traits onto the tips of these trees to make inferences about trait evolution. Using lexical data I infer the phylogenetic relationships between 82 Indo-European languages. The estimated divergence time of these languages agrees with earlier studies in supporting a hypothesis that places the homeland of the Indo-Europeans somewhere in Anatolia 8000-9500 BP. Using data from Austronesian-speaking societies I give examples of the use of comparative methods to (i) infer the system of land tenure in ancestral societies, (ii) examine the ecological correlates of violence in the Polynesian and Micronesian societies, and (iii) test hypotheses about the mode and tempo of sociopolitical evolution. I examine future areas of cultural phylogenetic research in the evolutionary social sciences and argue that the kinds of studies introduced in this article hold the potential for fruitful collaborations between cultural phylogeneticists and cross-cultural researchers. © 2013 SAGE Publications.
Abstract.
Currie TE (2013). Cultural Evolution. How Darwinian Theory can Explain Human Culture and Synthesize the Social Sciences.
ANTHROPOS,
108(1), 339-340.
Author URL.
Currie TE, Meade A, Guillon M, Mace R (2013). Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,
280(1762).
Abstract:
Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa
There is disagreement about the routes taken by populations speaking Bantu languages as they expanded to cover much of sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we build phylogenetic trees of Bantu languages and map them onto geographical space in order to assess the likely pathway of expansion and test between dispersal scenarios. The results clearly support a scenario in which groups first moved south through the rainforest from a homeland somewhere near the Nigeria-Cameroon border. Emerging on the south side of the rainforest, one branch moved south and west. Another branch moved towards the Great Lakes, eventually giving rise to the monophyletic clade of East Bantu languages that inhabit East and Southeastern Africa. These phylogenies also reveal information about more general processes involved in the diversification of human populations into distinct ethnolinguistic groups. Our study reveals that Bantu languages show a latitudinal gradient in covering greater areas with increasing distance from the equator. Analyses suggest that this pattern reflects a true ecological relationship rather than merely being an artefact of shared history. The study shows how a phylogeographic approach can address questions relating to the specific histories of certain groups, as well as general cultural evolutionary processes. © 2013 the Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
Abstract.
Currie TE (2013). Inequality and Institutions: a Review Essay on Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson.
Cliodynamics: the Journal of Theoretical and Mathematical History,
4(1).
Abstract:
Inequality and Institutions: a Review Essay on Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
A Review Essay on Why Nations Fail: the Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (Random House, 2012)
Abstract.
Author URL.
Turchin P, Currie TE, Turner EAL, Gavrilets S (2013). War, space, and the evolution of Old World complex societies.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,
110(41), 16384-16389.
Abstract:
War, space, and the evolution of Old World complex societies
How did human societies evolve from small groups, integrated by face-to-face cooperation, to huge anonymous societies of today, typically organized as states? Why is there so much variation in the ability of different human populations to construct viable states? Existing theories are usually formulated as verbal models and, as a result, do not yield sharply defined, quantitative predictions that could be unambiguously tested with data. Here we develop a cultural evolutionary model that predicts where and when the largest-scale complex societies arose in human history. The central premise of the model, which we test, is that costly institutions that enabled large human groups to function without splitting up evolved as a result of intense competition between societies-primarily warfare. Warfare intensity, in turn, depended on the spread of historically attested military technologies (e.g. chariots and cavalry) and on geographic factors (e.g. rugged landscape). The model was simulated within a realistic landscape of the Afroeurasian landmass and its predictions were tested against a large dataset documenting the spatiotemporal distribution of historical large-scale societies in Afroeurasia between 1,500 BCE and 1,500 CE. The model-predicted pattern of spread of large-scale societies was very similar to the observed one. Overall, the model explained 65% of variance in the data. An alternative model, omitting the effect of diffusing military technologies, explained only 16% of variance. Our results support theories that emphasize the role of institutions in state-building and suggest a possible explanation why a long history of statehood is positively correlated with political stability, institutional quality, and income per capita.
Abstract.
2012
Currie TE, Mace R (2012). Analyses do not support the parasite-stress theory of human sociality.
Behav Brain Sci,
35(2), 83-85.
Abstract:
Analyses do not support the parasite-stress theory of human sociality.
Re-analysis of the data provided in the target article reveals a lack of evidence for a strong, universal relationship between parasite stress and the variables relating to sociality. Furthermore, even if associations between these variables do exist, the analyses presented here do not provide evidence for Fincher & Thornhill's (F&T's) proposed causal mechanism.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Currie TE, MacE R (2012). The evolution of ethnolinguistic diversity.
Advances in Complex Systems,
15(1-2).
Abstract:
The evolution of ethnolinguistic diversity
Humans divide themselves up into groups based on a shared cultural identity and common descent. Culturally inherited differences in dress, language, and institutions are often used as symbolic markers of the boundaries of these ethnic groups. Relatively little is known about the function of such ethnic groups, and why ethnic diversity is high in some regions yet lower in others. In this paper, we demonstrate how investigating the spatial distribution of ethnolinguistic groups can reveal the factors that affect the origin and maintenance of human ethnic group diversity. Here we describe the use of a Geographic Information System to construct a large database that integrates information about languages with a number of environmental, ecological, and ethnographic variables. Using these data on the spatial distribution of ethnolinguistic groups, we employ a hierarchical linear modeling approach to test a variety of hypotheses concerning the function of such groups. Despite revealing intriguing spatial patterns such as the latitudinal gradient in ethnolinguistic diversity, previous analyses suggested that the direct effects of environmental variables on the distribution of ethnolinguistic groups were in fact quite small. Here we show that the strength of the relationship between ethnolinguistic area and environmental variables is stronger in societies whose primary mode of subsistence is foraging. We then go on to demonstrate this same finding using the estimated native distributions of ethnolinguistic group in the Americas and Australia. In particular, Net Primary Productivity is shown to be a good predictor of the area covered by ethnolinguistic groups in foragers but not in agriculturalists. This provides support for the idea that the factors affecting ethnic diversity have changed in a systematic way with changes in subsistence strategies and social organization. We highlight future avenues for spatially explicit investigations of the evolution of ethnic diversity, and suggest that the evolutionary ecological approach adopted here may provide important insights into processes affecting ethnic diversity in the modern world. © 2012 World Scientific Publishing Company.
Abstract.
Currie TE (2012). Using phylogenetic comparative methods to test hypotheses about the pattern and process of human social and political evolution. In Minaka N, Nakao H (Eds.) 文化系統学への招待―文化の進化パターンを探る(Cultural Genealogy - Exploring the Evolutionary Patterns of Culture), Keiso Shobo.
2011
Currie TE, Mace R (2011). Mode and tempo in the evolution of socio-political organization: reconciling 'Darwinian' and 'Spencerian' evolutionary approaches in anthropology.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci,
366(1567), 1108-1117.
Abstract:
Mode and tempo in the evolution of socio-political organization: reconciling 'Darwinian' and 'Spencerian' evolutionary approaches in anthropology.
Traditional investigations of the evolution of human social and political institutions trace their ancestry back to nineteenth century social scientists such as Herbert Spencer, and have concentrated on the increase in socio-political complexity over time. More recent studies of cultural evolution have been explicitly informed by Darwinian evolutionary theory and focus on the transmission of cultural traits between individuals. These two approaches to investigating cultural change are often seen as incompatible. However, we argue that many of the defining features and assumptions of 'Spencerian' cultural evolutionary theory represent testable hypotheses that can and should be tackled within a broader 'Darwinian' framework. In this paper we apply phylogenetic comparative techniques to data from Austronesian-speaking societies of Island South-East Asia and the Pacific to test hypotheses about the mode and tempo of human socio-political evolution. We find support for three ideas often associated with Spencerian cultural evolutionary theory: (i) political organization has evolved through a regular sequence of forms, (ii) increases in hierarchical political complexity have been more common than decreases, and (iii) political organization has co-evolved with the wider presence of hereditary social stratification.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Currie T (2011). The natural order?. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 9(2), 195-200.
2010
Currie TE, Greenhill SJ, Mace R (2010). Is horizontal transmission really a problem for phylogenetic comparative methods? a simulation study using continuous cultural traits.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci,
365(1559), 3903-3912.
Abstract:
Is horizontal transmission really a problem for phylogenetic comparative methods? a simulation study using continuous cultural traits.
Phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) provide a potentially powerful toolkit for testing hypotheses about cultural evolution. Here, we build on previous simulation work to assess the effect horizontal transmission between cultures has on the ability of both phylogenetic and non-phylogenetic methods to make inferences about trait evolution. We found that the mode of horizontal transmission of traits has important consequences for both methods. Where traits were horizontally transmitted separately, PCMs accurately reported when trait evolution was not correlated even at the highest levels of horizontal transmission. By contrast, linear regression analyses often incorrectly concluded that traits were correlated. Where simulated trait evolution was not correlated and traits were horizontally transmitted as a pair, both methods inferred increased levels of positive correlation with increasing horizontal transmission. Where simulated trait evolution was correlated, increasing rates of separate horizontal transmission led to decreasing levels of inferred correlation for both methods, but increasing rates of paired horizontal transmission did not. Furthermore, the PCM was also able to make accurate inferences about the ancestral state of traits. These results suggest that under certain conditions, PCMs can be robust to the effects of horizontal transmission. We discuss ways that future work can investigate the mode and tempo of horizontal transmission of cultural traits.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Currie TE, Greenhill SJ, Gray RD, Hasegawa T, Mace R (2010). Rise and fall of political complexity in island South-East Asia and the Pacific.
Nature,
467(7317), 801-804.
Abstract:
Rise and fall of political complexity in island South-East Asia and the Pacific.
There is disagreement about whether human political evolution has proceeded through a sequence of incremental increases in complexity, or whether larger, non-sequential increases have occurred. The extent to which societies have decreased in complexity is also unclear. These debates have continued largely in the absence of rigorous, quantitative tests. We evaluated six competing models of political evolution in Austronesian-speaking societies using phylogenetic methods. Here we show that in the best-fitting model political complexity rises and falls in a sequence of small steps. This is closely followed by another model in which increases are sequential but decreases can be either sequential or in bigger drops. The results indicate that large, non-sequential jumps in political complexity have not occurred during the evolutionary history of these societies. This suggests that, despite the numerous contingent pathways of human history, there are regularities in cultural evolution that can be detected using computational phylogenetic methods.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Currie TE (2010). Tests in Time: a Review of Natural Experiments of History, edited by Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson.
Cliodynamics,
1(1).
Abstract:
Tests in Time: a Review of Natural Experiments of History, edited by Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson
A Review of Natural Experiments of History, edited by Jared Diamond and James Robinson (Belknap Press, 2010).
Abstract.
Author URL.
2009
Greenhill SJ, Currie TE, Gray RD (2009). Does horizontal transmission invalidate cultural phylogenies?.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,
276(1665), 2299-2306.
Abstract:
Does horizontal transmission invalidate cultural phylogenies?
Phylogenetic methods have recently been applied to studies of cultural evolution. However, it has been claimed that the large amount of horizontal transmission that sometimes occurs between cultural groups invalidates the use of these methods. Here, we use a natural model of linguistic evolution to simulate borrowing between languages. The results show that tree topologies constructed with Bayesian phylogenetic methods are robust to realistic levels of borrowing. Inferences about divergence dates are slightly less robust and show a tendency to underestimate dates. Our results demonstrate that realistic levels of reticulation between cultures do not invalidate a phylogenetic approach to cultural and linguistic evolution. © 2009 the Royal Society.
Abstract.
Currie TE, Mace R (2009). Political complexity predicts the spread of ethnolinguistic groups.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A,
106(18), 7339-7344.
Abstract:
Political complexity predicts the spread of ethnolinguistic groups.
Human languages show a remarkable degree of variation in the area they cover. However, the factors governing the distribution of human cultural groups such as languages are not well understood. While previous studies have examined the role of a number of environmental variables the importance of cultural factors has not been systematically addressed. Here we use a geographical information system (GIS) to integrate information about languages with environmental, ecological, and ethnographic data to test a number of hypotheses that have been proposed to explain the global distribution of languages. We show that the degree of political complexity and type of subsistence strategy exhibited by societies are important predictors of the area covered by a language. Political complexity is also strongly associated with the latitudinal gradient in language area, whereas subsistence strategy is not. We argue that a process of cultural group selection favoring more complex societies may have been important in shaping the present-day global distribution of language diversity.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Currie TE, Little AC (2009). The relative importance of the face and body in judgments of human physical attractiveness.
Evolution and Human Behavior,
30(6), 409-416.
Abstract:
The relative importance of the face and body in judgments of human physical attractiveness
A number of traits have been proposed to be important in human mate choice decisions. However, relatively little work has been conducted to determine the relative importance of these traits. In this study, we assessed the relative importance of the face and body in judgments of human physical attractiveness. One hundred twenty-seven men and 133 women were shown images of 10 individuals of the opposite sex. Participants rated the images for their attractiveness for either a short-term relationship or a long-term relationship. Images of the face and the body were rated independently before participants were shown and asked to rate the combined face and body images. Face ratings were found to be the best predictor of the ratings of combined images for both sexes and for both relationship types. Females showed no difference in ratings between short- and long-term conditions, but male ratings of female bodies became relatively more important for a short-term relationship compared with a long-term relationship. Results suggest that faces and bodies may be signaling different information about potential mates. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Abstract.