1. Cultural ecologies of adaptive vs. maladaptive traits: A simple nonlinear model.
- Author
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Antoci, Angelo, Russu, Paolo, and Sacco, Pier Luigi
- Subjects
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CULTURAL ecology , *ADAPTABILITY (Personality) , *NONLINEAR statistical models , *PERSONALITY , *DIAGENESIS - Abstract
In this paper, we generalize a model by Enquist and Ghirlanda [12] to analyze the “macro” dynamics of cumulative culture in a context where there is a coexistence of adaptive and maladaptive cultural traits. In particular, we introduce a different, nonlinear specification of the main processes at work in the cumulative culture dynamics: imperfect transmission of traits, generation of new traits, and switches from adaptive to maladaptive and vice-versa. We find that the system exhibits a variety of dynamic behaviors where the crucial force is the switching between the adaptive and maladaptive nature of a certain trait, with the other processes playing a modulating role. We identify in particular a number of dynamic regimes with distinctive characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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