Cumulative Cultural Evolution

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Cultural evolution has predictable patterns. Phylogenetic comparative studies show that cultural traits in southeast Asia, the Pacific, and sub-Saharan Africa change at similar relative rates regardless of historical context. The rate of change varies among different cultural traits: those related to social structures, such as material culture, carry a neutral survival value and change more rapidly than those related to external environmental conditions, e.g. technology, which are subject to natural selection.
In biological evolution, genetic drift is stronger in small populations, which allows the fixation of deleterious traits. Similarly, as statistical anomalies in small populations cause cultural drift, small and isolated cultural groups …show more content…
The evolution of archeological artefacts show more recent specimens were slightly modified from preceding ones. Cumulative cultural evolution generates adaptive responses more rapidly than natural selection does, which may be the underlying cause of the proliferation of the human species during the Pleistocene. Humans are able to cause large-scale environmental changes - the advent of agriculture led to the population explosion in the Holocene, during which the origin of survival pressure shifted from natural selection to artificial …show more content…
Cross-cultural studies show that socioeconomic complexity is strongly correlated with population pressure. In small-scale societies without intense resource competition, the cost for individual households to integrate into larger polities outweighs its benefits; however, as the population grows and competition for resources increases, solving subsistence problems requires group action and leadership. The proximal mechanism of response to resource-challenges involves a chain of economic and social changes including subsistence intensification, political integration, and social stratification.
As the population grows, it becomes advantageous to invest in technologies that utilise resources unneeded at a lower population level. The feedback mechanism between population growth and technological advance leads to subsistence intensification, which in turn increases the benefits of the violent seizure of territory relative to the cost of violence. Aggression and warfare fueled by resource competition necessitate political integration to achieve order, avoid further military engagement, and control the detrimental effects of large-scale
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