Cultural and Physical Evolution

Cultural commons and cultural evolution

Culture evolves following a process that is akin to biological evolution, although with some significant differences. At the same time culture has often a collective good value for human groups. This paper studies culture in an evolutionary perspective, with a focus on the implications of group definition for the coexistence of different cultures. A model of cultural evolution is presented wher...

Cultural Evolution and Memetics

Cultural evolution and personalization

In social sciences, there is currently no consensus on the mechanism for cultural evolution. The evolution of first names of newborn babies offers a remarkable example for the researches in the field. Here we perform statistical analyses on over 100 years of data in the United States. We focus in particular on how the frequency-rank distribution and inequality of baby names change over time. We...

Homicide and Cultural Evolution

Homicide rates are suitable materials for the study of “cultural evolution,” because they vary dramatically between societies (hence, are “cultural”) and change gradually rather than saccadically (hence, “evolve”). Sociological models of the sources of variation in homicide rates (“subcultures of violence”; demographic change; “legitimation of violence”; mass media effects) are criticized for i...

Cultural Evolution