Cultural traits as units of analysis

Cultural traits have long been used in anthropology as units of transmission that ostensibly reflect behavioural characteristics of the individuals or groups exhibiting the traits. After they are transmitted, cultural traits serve as units of replication in that they can be modified as part of an in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences 2010-12, Vol.365 (1559), p.3797-3806
Main Authors: O'Brien, Michael J., Lyman, R. Lee, Mesoudi, Alex, VanPool, Todd L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeological paradigms
Archaeology
Classes
Cultural anthropology
Cultural Characteristics
Cultural Evolution
Cultural Traits
Cultural Transmission
Design Space
Evolution
Humans
Ideational Units
Learning
Material culture
Models, Theoretical
Personality traits
Phenotypic traits
Projectiles
Social Behavior
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Summary:Cultural traits have long been used in anthropology as units of transmission that ostensibly reflect behavioural characteristics of the individuals or groups exhibiting the traits. After they are transmitted, cultural traits serve as units of replication in that they can be modified as part of an individual's cultural repertoire through processes such as recombination, loss or partial alteration within an individual's mind. Cultural traits are analogous to genes in that organisms replicate them, but they are also replicators in their own right. No one has ever seen a unit of transmission, either behavioural or genetic, although we can observe the effects of transmission. Fortunately, such units are manifest in artefacts, features and other components of the archaeological record, and they serve as proxies for studying the transmission (and modification) of cultural traits, provided there is analytical clarity over how to define and measure the units that underlie this inheritance process.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2010.0012