Modelling Cultural Transmission

Abstract Humans are ‘cultural animals’. We pass our innovations and cultural traits to our children and to our peers in a huge variety of ways—from direct teaching to strategic imitation. Relying on these ‘transmission mechanisms’, we construct vast, almost all-encompassing cultural and physical environments that reflect our cultural biases. But what effect does this variety of transmission mechanisms have on the dynamics of cultural evolution? From its beginnings in the work of Luca Luigi Cavalli-Sforza and Marcus W. Feldman, and Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson, the field of cultural evolution has had solid theoretical foundations and the quantitative theory of cultural transmission has formed a large part of this foundation. Models of transmission mechanisms have drawn on work from genetic evolution, ecology, economics, and epidemiology, extending and adapting them to account for unique features of cultural transmission. Since the 1970s, researchers have continued to add to and develop models of cultural transmission. To this body of analytical theory, researchers have also added a suite of simulation models that can incorporate more complexity and nuance. These models generate insight that would be inaccessible to us without modern computational power. This chapter reviews some of the most important and commonly applied approaches to modelling cultural transmission alongside some recent developments and potential future directions.