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Articles 1 - 10 of 10
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Cultural Evolutionary Tipping Points In The Storage And Transmission Of Information, R. A. Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien
Cultural Evolutionary Tipping Points In The Storage And Transmission Of Information, R. A. Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien
History Faculty Publications
Human culture has evolved through a series of major tipping points in information storage and communication. The first was the appearance of language, which enabled communication between brains and allowed humans to specialize in what they do and to participate in complex mating games. The second was information storage outside the brain, most obviously expressed in the "Upper Paleolithic Revolution" - the sudden proliferation of cave art, personal adornment, and ritual in Europe some 35,000-45,000 years ago. More recently, this storage has taken the form of writing, mass media, and now the Internet, which is arguably overwhelming humans' ability to …
Statistical Analyses Cannot Be Divorced From Archaeological Theory: A Reply To Potter, A. Mesoudi, Michael J. O'Brien
Statistical Analyses Cannot Be Divorced From Archaeological Theory: A Reply To Potter, A. Mesoudi, Michael J. O'Brien
History Faculty Publications
Potter criticizes our experimental study of the roles played by indirect bias and guided variation in shaping prehistoric Great Basin projectile point variation. His criticisms are technically correct from the standpoint of statistical convention, but he fails to understand the theoretical rationale of our study. Without such an understanding, hi s assertion that our conclusions are questionable is incorrect. Here we point out again (1) how our experimental work bridges the gap between cultural-transmission theory and the empirical record and (2) why our conclusions are indeed valid.
Beveled Projectile Points And Ballistics Technology, C. P. Lipo, R. C. Dunnell, Michael J. O'Brien, V. Harper, J. Dudgeon
Beveled Projectile Points And Ballistics Technology, C. P. Lipo, R. C. Dunnell, Michael J. O'Brien, V. Harper, J. Dudgeon
History Faculty Publications
Explanations for beveled blade edges on projectile points have been debated in North America archaeology since the first systematic description of lithic assemblages in the nineteenth century. Debate has centered around two opposing perspectives. One views beveled edges as features of projectile points that cause them to spin during flight. The other views beveling as a product of edge resharpening that is done unifacially to conserve scarce resources. Here we use a fluid-dynamics model to simulate the effect beveling has on projectiles. Expectations derived from this modeling are evaluated using wind-tunnel experiments. Our findings indicate that beveling produces in-flight rotation …
Genes, Culture, And Agriculture: An Example Of Human Niche Construction, Michael J. O'Brien, K. N. Laland
Genes, Culture, And Agriculture: An Example Of Human Niche Construction, Michael J. O'Brien, K. N. Laland
History Faculty Publications
Theory and empirical data from a variety of disciplines strongly imply that recent human history involves extensive gene-culture coevolution, much of it as a direct result of human agricultural practices. Here we draw on nicheconstruction theory (NCT) and gene-culture coevolutionary theory (GCT) to propose a broad theoretical framework (NCT-GCT) with which archaeologists and anthropologists can explore coevolutionary dynamics. Humans are enormously potent niche constructors, and understanding how niche construction regulates ecosystem dynamics is central to understanding the impact of human populations on their ecological and developmental environments. We use as primary examples the evolution of dairying by Neolithic groups in …
Word Diffusion And Climate Science, R. A. Bentley, P. Garnett, Michael J. O'Brien, W. A. Brock
Word Diffusion And Climate Science, R. A. Bentley, P. Garnett, Michael J. O'Brien, W. A. Brock
History Faculty Publications
As public and political debates often demonstrate, a substantial disjoint can exist between the findings of science and the impact it has on the public. Using climate-change science as a case example, we reconsider the role of scientists in the information-dissemination process, our hypothesis being that important keywords used in climate science follow "boom and bust" fashion cycles in public usage. Representing this public usage through extraordinary new data on word frequencies in books published up to the year 2008, we show that a classic two-parameter social-diffusion model closely fits the comings and goings of many keywords over generational or …
A Morphometric Assessment Of The Intended Function Of Cached Clovis Points, B. Buchanan, J. D. Kilby, B. B. Huckell, Michael J. O'Brien, M. Collard
A Morphometric Assessment Of The Intended Function Of Cached Clovis Points, B. Buchanan, J. D. Kilby, B. B. Huckell, Michael J. O'Brien, M. Collard
History Faculty Publications
A number of functions have been proposed for cached Clovis points. The least complicated hypothesis is that they were intended to arm hunting weapons. It has also been argued that they were produced for use in rituals or in connection with costly signaling displays. Lastly, it has been suggested that some cached Clovis points may have been used as saws. Here we report a study in which we morphometrically compared Clovis points from caches with Clovis points recovered from kill and camp sites to test two predictions of the hypothesis that cached Clovis points were intended to arm hunting weapons: …
An Assessment Of The Impact Of Hafting On Paleoindian Point Variability, B. Buchanan, Michael J. O'Brien, J. D. Kilby, B. B. Huckell, M. Collard
An Assessment Of The Impact Of Hafting On Paleoindian Point Variability, B. Buchanan, Michael J. O'Brien, J. D. Kilby, B. B. Huckell, M. Collard
History Faculty Publications
It has long been argued that the form of North American Paleoindian points was affected by hafting. According to this hypothesis, hafting constrained point bases such that they are less variable than point blades. The results of several studies have been claimed to be consistent with this hypothesis. However, there are reasons to be skeptical of these results. None of the studies employed statistical tests, and all of them focused on points recovered from kill and camp sites, which makes it difficult to be certain that the differences in variability are the result of hafting rather than a consequence of …
Risk Of Resource Failure And Toolkit Variation In Small-Scale Farmers And Herders, M. Collard, A. Ruttle, B. Buchanan, Michael J. O'Brien
Risk Of Resource Failure And Toolkit Variation In Small-Scale Farmers And Herders, M. Collard, A. Ruttle, B. Buchanan, Michael J. O'Brien
History Faculty Publications
Recent work suggests that global variation in toolkit structure among hunter-gatherers is driven by risk of resource failure such that as risk of resource failure increases, toolkits become more diverse and complex. Here we report a study in which we investigated whether the toolkits of small-scale farmers and herders are influenced by risk of resource failure in the same way. In the study, we applied simple linear and multiple regression analysis to data from 45 small-scale food-producing groups to test the risk hypothesis. Our results were not consistent with the hypothesis; none of the risk variables we examined had a …
Adult Learners In A Novel Environment Use Prestige-Biased Social Learning, C. Atkisson, Michael J. O'Brien, A. A. Mesoudi
Adult Learners In A Novel Environment Use Prestige-Biased Social Learning, C. Atkisson, Michael J. O'Brien, A. A. Mesoudi
History Faculty Publications
Social learning (learning from others) is evolutionarily adaptive under a wide range of conditions and is a long-standing area of interest across the social and biological sciences. One social-learning mechanism derived from cultural evolutionary theory is prestige bias, which allows a learner in a novel environment to quickly and inexpensively gather information as to the potentially best teachers, thus maximizing his or her chances of acquiring adaptive behavior. Learners provide deference to high-status individuals in order to ingratiate themselves with, and gain extended exposure to, that individual. We examined prestige-biased social transmission in a laboratory experiment in which participants designed …
Tipping Points Among Social Learners: Tools From Varied Disciplines, R. A. Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien
Tipping Points Among Social Learners: Tools From Varied Disciplines, R. A. Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien
History Faculty Publications
There is a long and rich tradition in the social sciences of using models of collective behavior in animals as jumping-off points for the study of human behavior, including collective human behavior. Here, we come at the problem in a slightly different fashion. We ask whether models of collective human behavior have anything to offer those who study animal behavior. Our brief example of tipping points, a model first developed in the physical sciences and later used in the social sciences, suggests that the analysis of human collective behavior does indeed have considerable to offer.