What Makes Inventions Become Traditions?

Although anthropology was the first academic discipline to investigate cultural change, many other disciplines have made noteworthy contributions to understanding what influences the adoption of new behaviors. Drawing on a broad, interdisciplinary literature covering both humans and nonhumans, we ex...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of anthropology 2022-01, Vol.51 (1), p.419-436
Main Authors: Perry, Susan E, Carter, Alecia, Foster, Jacob G, Nöbel, Sabine, Smolla, Marco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic disciplines
Anthropologists
Anthropology
Behavior
Cultural change
cultural diffusion
Cultural groups
Cultural transmission
Dyadic relationships
Extinction
Holistic approach
Humanities and Social Sciences
innovation
Interdisciplinary aspects
Inventions
Social Anthropology and ethnology
social learning
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although anthropology was the first academic discipline to investigate cultural change, many other disciplines have made noteworthy contributions to understanding what influences the adoption of new behaviors. Drawing on a broad, interdisciplinary literature covering both humans and nonhumans, we examine ( a ) which features of behavioral traits make them more transmissible, ( b ) which individual characteristics of inventors promote copying of their inventions, ( c ) which characteristics of individuals make them more prone to adopting new behaviors, ( d ) which characteristics of dyadic relationships promote cultural transmission, ( e ) which properties of groups (e.g., network structures) promote transmission of traits, and ( f ) which characteristics of groups promote retention, rather than extinction, of cultural traits. One of anthropology's strengths is its readiness to adopt and improve theories and methods from other disciplines, integrating them into a more holistic approach; hence, we identify approaches that might be particularly useful to biological and cultural anthropologists, and knowledge gaps that should be filled.
ISSN:0084-6570
1545-4290
0084-6570
DOI:10.1146/annurev-anthro-012121-012127