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Sustainability of minority culture when inter-ethnic interaction is profitable

Nature Human Behaviour volume 2, pages 205–212 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Members of some ethnic minorities are interested in the sustainability of certain cultural traits typical of their group. However, theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that sustaining such cultural variation can be difficult, given inter-ethnic interactions between groups differing in size, prestige and power. Here we examine the dynamics of cultural norms by constructing a model of interaction between members of minority and majority ethnic groups. We incorporate asymmetric coordination benefits to represent ethnic asymmetries in resource control and bargaining power. In the absence of other processes, we find that sustainability of minority cultural norms may be enhanced by establishing a group boundary that minority members can cross freely, but members of a powerful majority cannot. We show how model predictions can complement empirical studies of cultural change, and demonstrate the model’s relevance to our understanding of norm dynamics in an indigenous Amazonian population.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the modelled population.
Fig. 2: Long-run norm frequencies.

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Acknowledgements

A. Kandler helped to develop the model in Supplementary Discussion B.4. A question by M. Borgerhoff-Mulder inspired the model in Supplementary Discussion B.5. B. Beheim helped with the derivation of equation (7). A. Pisor, A. Kandler, C. Moya, B. Purzycki, C. Ross, C. Revilla and the staff of the Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, as well as the Human Behavioral Ecology Lab Group at the University of California, Davis, provided valuable comments and criticism on earlier versions of this paper. Any error in word, math, or script is ours. Funding was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (BCS 1227152) to J.A.B., and by the Max Planck Society. The funders had no role in study design, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

    John A. Bunce & Richard McElreath

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    John A. Bunce & Richard McElreath

  3. Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    John A. Bunce

Authors
  1. John A. Bunce
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J.A.B. and R.M. designed the research. J.A.B. performed the analysis. J.A.B. and R.M. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to John A. Bunce.

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Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Files 1–8, Supplementary References 1–7, Supplementary Tables 1–2.

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Bunce, J.A., McElreath, R. Sustainability of minority culture when inter-ethnic interaction is profitable. Nat Hum Behav 2, 205–212 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0306-7

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