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Identifying the processes by which human cultures spread across diffferent populations is one of the most topical objectives shared among diffferent fields of study. Seminal works have analyzed a variety of data and attempted to determine whether empirically observed patterns are the result of demic and/or cultural difffusion. This special issue collects articles exploring several themes (from modes of cultural transmission to drivers of dispersal mechanisms) and contexts (from the Neolithic in Europe to the spread of computer programming languages), which offfer new insights that will augment the theoretical and empirical basis for the study of demic and cultural difffusion. In this introduction we outline the state of art in the modeling of these processes, briefly discuss the pros and cons of two of the most commonly used frameworks (equation-based models and agent-based models), and summarize the significance of each article in this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Jia River was put into use during the reign of Emperor Wani, Zaozhuang gradually became an important town along the Grand Canal in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Because of the water transport of grain to the capital. The interflow of people and goods gathered in Zaozhuang, stimulating local business, the development of handcraft, service industry along with he booming of political, economic, cultural exchanges and integration. As a result, the regional society of Zaozhuang was characterized by its assimilation, diversity and richness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the notion of cultural diversity transformed by the contemporary wave of culturalism from a given human condition and anthropology. The was the transformation into a normative metanarrative, whether culture is seen as the ground of perpetual, irreducible diversity of human kind. The author points out that cultural differences in the service of a larger national or international politics are global in which the discourses of cultural diversity as a policy ideal have been generated in Europe and North American and appear to have their strongest purchase there.

The article discusses the contemporary cultures left by the Europeans in their interactions with peoples who are their colonies resulted from their expeditions after 1492. The author points out that these interactions shaped and were shaped by differences between the systems of beliefs, technologies, economics, religions, and cultures of Europeans and peoples they encountered. This suggests that the postcoloniality of any culture may be identified as moment of gradual and complex cross culture drawn out the idea of postcolonial cultures.

ABSTRACT Two differential equations modeling the diffusion of use of cultural forms are developed as alternatives to an earlier model based on exponential epochs of diffusion. Both new models are similar in that they incorporate imitation and desertion effects, but differ in the manner in which these effects operate over the course of the diffusion of use. The model which has a Gompertz curve as its integrated form fits data from 17 instances of use diffusion better than the model which has a logistic curve as its integrated form and, in addition, is more parsimonious than the original exponential epoch model. The relationship between the observed values of the parameters representing imitation and desertion is discussed in the context of the process of use diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article discusses the global diffusion of social and cultural sciences providing a framework that facilitate worldwide communication among intellectuals through a degree of sharing of common concepts which implies the appreciation of regional and local differences. The author points out the cultures in East Asia which includes Japan, China and Korea. He points out that as concepts diffuse outwards from their original context of application, redefinition of cultures inevitably multiply through the varied standpoints of culture investigators.