Collection 

Cultural evolution

Submission status
Closed
Submission deadline

Cultural evolution describes how socially learned ideas, rules, and skills are transmitted and change over time, giving rise to diverse forms of social organization, belief systems, languages, technologies and artistic traditions. This research article Collection will showcase cutting-edge research into cultural evolution, bringing together contributions that reflect the interdisciplinary scope of this rapidly growing field, as well as the diversity of topics and approaches within it.

Quantitative and qualitative research from a range of perspectives and disciplines is welcomed, including: sociology, archaeology, anthropology, complex network analysis, economics, history, linguistics, medical humanities, politics, psychology, philosophy, and religious studies.

Contributions are invited on, but not restricted to, the following themes:

  • Comparative studies of social learning and/or cultural transmission;
  • Evolution in human behaviour;
  • Cognitive anthropology;
  • Cultural attraction theory;
  • Experimental studies of cultural evolution;
  • Novel methodologies to study sociocultural evolution;
  • Quantitative/complex network analysis;
  • Modelling studies of cultural evolutionary dynamics;
  • Phylogenetic analysis of culture and language;
  • Gene-culture co-evolution and human niche construction;
  • Evolution of religious practices and beliefs;
  •  Real-world applications of cultural evolutionary knowledge — e.g. to grand societal challenges;
  •  Evolution of language and communication;
  • Philosophical perspectives on cultural evolution.
A pock-marked wall in painted in blue and yellow, with Hindi graffiti

Editors

Articles