Denmark

**Author(s):** Hrnčíř, V; Chira, A &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Introduction: Alcohol is the most widely used human psychoactive and mind-altering drug. This is partly because its production is very straightforward: any substance that contains sugar can be converted into alcoholic beverage through the natural process of fermentation. Yet, many societies around the world did not know alcohol or forbade its consumption. Our goal is to discover which cultural and ecological factors can explain why some societies produce alcoholic drinks, while others do not.
&lt;br&gt;Materials &amp; Methods: We coded data for native alcoholic beverages in 186 non-industrial societies (Standard Cross-Cultural Sample). We tested the effect of potentially predictive variables (obtained from D-PLACE) on alcohol production in Bayesian logistic regressions, while accounting for spatial proximity and common ancestry. 
&lt;br&gt;Results &amp; Discussion: Our results confirm the intuitive assumption that the presence of Islamic religion and the absence of fruit trees and cereals cultivation predict the absence of alcohol. Importantly, we also confirm the strong correlation between the presence of alcoholic beverages and cultural complexity, which has been pointed out before but has not yet been empirically tested. The next step will be to uncover the evolutionary dynamics of this relationship.

Cultural Evolution Society 2022

Why don&#39;t they get drunk? Alcoholic beverages in non-industrial societies

alcohol; cross-cultural; ethnohistorical data; cultural complexity; ecology

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. The program featured plenary speakers, sessions, workshops and many special activities.

For more information please visit the 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting page at: https://www.aapt.org/Conferences/SM2020/index.cfm.


AAPT SM 20

**Author(s):** Hrnčíř, V; Chira, A Introduction: Alcohol is the most widely used human psychoactive and mind-altering drug. This is partly because its production is very straightforward: any substance that contains sugar can be converted into alcoholic beverage through the natural process of fermentation. Yet, many societies around the world did not know alcohol or forbade its consumption. Our goal is to discover which cultural and ecological factors can explain why some societies produce alcoholic drinks, while others do not.
 Materials & Methods: We coded data for native alcoholic beverages in 186 non-industrial societies (Standard Cross-Cultural Sample). We tested the effect of potentially predictive variables (obtained from D-PLACE) on alcohol production in Bayesian logistic regressions, while accounting for spatial proximity and common ancestry. 
 Results & Discussion: Our results confirm the intuitive assumption that the presence of Islamic religion and the absence of fruit trees and cereals cultivation predict the absence of alcohol. Importantly, we also confirm the strong correlation between the presence of alcoholic beverages and cultural complexity, which has been pointed out before but has not yet been empirically tested. The next step will be to uncover the evolutionary dynamics of this relationship.

Why don't they get drunk? Alcoholic beverages in non-industrial societies

technical paper

### Welcome to the fourth Cultural Evolution Society Conference, CES2022! 

As last year, Underline will support the online component of the conference. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is causing a great deal of uncertainty for all of us. Therefore, we seek to offer a hybrid format that will hopefully allow some folks to travel to Aarhus, others to meet up locally or regionally in CES hub-lets, and other yet to participate online. The field of cultural evolution is growing in size and scope; its theories, methods and applications - both academic and applied - are getting ever more robust. Do join us in what promises to be an exciting exchange of ideas and a celebration of our field.

##### ***For SoMe interaction and live tweeting please tag @CulturalEvolSoc and use #CESconf2022***


#### The CES 2022 local organising committee
* Luseadra Joy McKerracher
* Jesper Sørensen 
* Niels Nørkjær Johannsen 
* Benjamin Grant Purzycki 
* Mette Løvschal 
* Felix Riede
* Iza Romanowska 
* Karsten Olsen

Please click on the button bellow if you want to watch the videos

The field of cultural evolution is growing in size and scope; its theories, methods and applications - both academic and applied - are getting ever more robust. Do join us in what promises to be an exciting exchange of ideas and a celebration of our field.

**Author(s):** Tamariz, M.; Papa, A.; Cristea, M.; McGuigan, N. Introduction During our lifetime we typically learn several variants of a given cultural trait, e.g., from family, peers and experts. Social biases affecting which variants are adopted by learners are well-studied. Considerably less is known about influences on the selection of variants for onward transmission by transmitters. This study tests whether a social context congruence effect is in place, i.e., do we tend to transmit to friends behaviours that we learned from friends, to our children behaviours learned from our parents, and to novices behaviours learned from experts? Methods Each of 64 participants learned two cultural variants (methods to solve a puzzle): “E” from an Expert and “P” from a Peer. Then, we

Associative learning and cultural transmission: We teach to novices the variants we learned from experts, and to peers the variants we learned from other peers!

Almost all cultures around the world exploit language resources to construe experiences of phenomena in quantity terms (e.g., cardinals, grammatical number) yet the evolutionary processes underlying the development of grammatical (singular, dual, and trial) and lexical number in language is understudied. This study tests the hypothesis that grammatical number developed from cardinal number through a case study of dual marking in the Para Nyungan language family. Factors that motivate the development of dual grammatical number are examined. Number, as a category of grammar, describes the regular encodings of our experiences of phenomena in exact quantity terms (as singular, dual, trial, paucal and plural values) through morphological, syntactic, and/or phonetic (e.g., tones, clitics) configurations. Beyond grammatical number, the majority of the languages of the world exploit lexical number — such as cardinals (e.g., one, two, three, four) and ordinals (e.g., first, tenth) — for exact quantification. Some studies hypothesise that the dual, trial, and paucal grammatical number values evolve from the cardinal numbers two, three, and four (Corbett, 2000; Aikhenvald, 2018) with evidence from language families (Austronesian and Sino Tibetan) where the number features are often marked. Yet, the crucial role of shared descent in influencing such a development (Macklin & Round, 2022) is not central in these reports since examples are extracted from only a few of the languages that mark these grammatical number features. The hypothesis also assumes that lexical number (specifically, cardinals) evolves prior to grammatical number. The evidence that plurality (Grammatical number) is marked in the 907 sampled languages with lexical numbers (high limit of cardinals) but not the reverse seems to support the conclusion that lexical number precedes the development of grammatical number (Overman, 2021). The evolution of grammatical number and cardinals in languages can however be studied independently. And the results from such independent examination of evolution could shed light on the relation between these two ways of quantifying as well as socio-cultural factors underline their relation. The present study tackles the biases in sampling by focusing on language families where the grammatical number features of interest dominate. The data for the study has been taken from Grambank and Numeralbank, global databases respectively on the grammatical and numeral systems of languages worldwide. The Atlantic Congo dominates (with 222 (52%) of the 425 languages) families marking singular grammatical number on nouns (Grambank). Austronesian dominates (204 languages - 33%) the 616 languages that mark dual grammatical number on pronouns. Pama-Nyungan has the majority of languages marking dual on nouns (25% — 26 of 184 languages). Lastly, the trial grammatical number the least frequently marked grammatical number (8 out of 2,214 languages mark trial number) is dominant in Austronesian (with 4 languages). The study focuses examines the evolutionary time for cardinal numbers and dual marking in the Pama Nyungan language family. The numerals of these languages were extracted from numeralbank. Example 1: Development of dual marking in the Yanyuwa clade LANGUAGE DUAL MARKER CARDINAL TWO SOURCE OF INFLUENCE Yanyuwa _wiya, rri_ Kanymarda, Binary system: 3 = 2 +1, 4 = 2+2 Anyirarra Coordination: marda [Also, too, and] Dual relates to animacy Warluwarra _wiya kutya, guca Borrowed from Yanyuwa Barlarnu _wiya gutyiya, guciya Borrowed from Yanyuwa Yindjilandi _wiya ɡulharra ɡutharra Borrowed from Yanyuwa The results from the preliminary phylogentic reconstruction of cardinals and dual markers in Pama-Nyungan languages shows that (1) cardinals developed first and (2) dual grammatical number developed much latter. The cardinal number two usually grammaticalises as dual in the languages which mark dual number. Socio-cultural practices, including counting practices and objects counted, suggests that the grammaticalisation process is influenced by cultural factors. In other words, the findings shows that the development of dual grammatical number from the cardinal two is motivated by cultural practices. The example (1) shows that the independent development of dual in the Yanyuwa clade was motivated by the binary numeral system, the conception of addition ("Marda" [and] a clip from Kanymarda [two] used as coordinator) and the animate objects that were counted (animacy effect). The remaining languages in the clade borrowed the dual marker from Yanyuwa. The results raises questions about the possibilities for languages to mark grammatical number beyond five given similar sociocultural practices. While the presence of birth order naming seems a positive evidence of such grammatical number development, the feature is less popular in the family for any strong conclusions to be drawn. Moreover, the few instances of quantifying birth order on nouns of the languages, the birth order labels did not exceed the numeral limit of the language family. This preliminary results shows that grammatical number marking in Pama Nyungan develops from cardinal numbers and has implication for the evolution of grammatical number, the cognitive scientific theory of subitizing and the evolution of cardinals.

On the Development of Grammatical Number

INTRODUCTION: Phylogenetic methods are used for the reconstruction of historical relationships between cultural lineages. These methods, designed for biological evolution, assume traits can only be transferred via inheritance. Little work has been done to determine how the introduction of horizontal transmission, potentially ubiquitous in cultural evolution, affects their accuracy. OBJECTIVE: In this study we tested the robustness of phylogenetic methods when applied to a demographic process with horizontal transmission of traits between groups. APPROACH: We generated synthetic population histories represented as phylogenetic trees. We then simulated variant data on the trees, sampled the terminal nodes and used standard phylogenetic reconstruction methods to construct best fitting trees from the leaf data. We assessed the accuracy of the phylogenetic reconstruction as the distance between the best fitting tree and the ‘true’ tree representation of the demographic history. FINDINGS: Phylogenetic methods are reliable only when the borrowing is constrained to groups with a recent common ancestor. In addition, borrowing can be constrained by either shared ancestry or spatial proximity, leading to significantly divergent inferred trees. CONCLUSION: Preliminary results suggest that the introduction of demographic complexity, including extinction of groups and horizontal transmission events, significantly decreases the accuracy of phylogenetic inference.

Can cultural phylogenies accurately capture spatially explicit demographic scenarios?

**Author(s):** Kasser, S. M.; Blanco-Portillo, J.; Fortunato, L.; Laland, K. N. Objective: Gene-culture coevolution (GCC) theory routinely predicts interactions between cultural and genetic variation that should emerge through empirical analyses, yet evidence for such associations remains sparse. By adapting tools that quantify ecological drivers of population genetic structure ("landscape genomics"), we explore potential cultural drivers of human genetic variation across Oceania to evaluate the extent of GCC.

Methods: We will introduce landscape genomics as a method of quantifying gene-culture coevolution. In a short test case, we use high-density SNP data from Oceanian individuals across 17 island populations from the OGVP (a collaboration between Oxford and Stanford). We then analyse these frequencies using GESTE, a Bayesian procedure to estimate the influence of environmental factors on population genetic structure. For the present analysis, cultural and ecological factors relating to subsistence, kinship practices and island ecology are drawn from relevant cross-cultural datasets.

Results: We will present results on associations between cultural factors and genetic structure.

Discussion: We will discuss the results in the context of recent work on how culture may shape genetic variation beyond classic examples of GCC, and whether landscape genomics represents a useful analogy for quantifying GCC.

Unravelling gene-culture coevolution in the Pacific

**Author(s):** Matthews, Luke J.; Khan, Omair Introduction: Shared understandings of current events are crucial to any functional modern society but common understandings even about factual elements of “what happened” during an event are frequently and hotly contested. Methods: We applied cultural consensus analysis (CCA) and cluster analysis to hundreds of thematically coded journalistic articles from a 2019 air skirmish between India and Pakistan. We applied these methods longitudinally to test alternative hypotheses that either narrative consensus about factual elements increased or decreased over time. Results: Consensus about factual elements of the 2019 air skirmish decreased over a two month period as the narrative diverged into two increasingly thematically distinct clusters. Conclusions: At least regarding the 2019 India-Pakistan air skirmish, journalistic articles decreased in consensus about facts over time. If these results generalize, then media companies might improve shared understandings by repeating articles from closer in time to actual events, as these articles show greater potential for narratives reflecting factual consensus.

Rapid cultural evolution of current event narratives

 As one of the two moderators, I will predominantly lead the theoretical discussion of what are social norms and how could they be identified in animals. I come from the perspective that rather than focusing on some cognitive mechanism that is taken to be necessary for having normativity, investigations into social norms should focus on community level patterns that are supported by social maintenance—positive and negative reinforcement by community members.

Theoretical angles on framing and identifying norms in nonhuman taxa

**Author(s):** Gunst, A; Nylund, E; Marklund A Introduction: Advantageous inequity aversion (i.e., the tendency to respond negatively to unfairness that benefits oneself) usually develops in 6–8-year-olds. However, little is known about the biological and cultural selection of this phenomenon. Materials and Methods: Using data collected from 120 4–8-year-old Finnish children, we tested two evolutionary explanations for the development of advantageous inequity aversion: reciprocal altruism (i.e., benefiting from sharing when the roles are likely reversed in the future) and inclusive fitness (i.e., benefiting from sharing with biological relatives that carry the same alleles). We asked children to distribute five erasers between themselves, a sibling, a friend, and a stranger. That is, an equal distribution was only possible if throwing away one eraser. Results: We found no support for advantageous inequity aversion being shaped by either inclusive fitness or reciprocal altruism. Participants did not show a preference for biological relatives or friends. Rather their behavior reflected a more general tendency for fairness. Discussion: It is possible that adherence to social norms to avoid negative consequences as explains the development of advantageous inequity aversion.

Norms of Fairness: Inclusive Fitness or Reciprocal Altruism Does not Explain Advantageous Inequity Aversion

**Author(s):** Schnell, E; Muthukrishna, M Individuals belong to many different cultural-groups which sometimes have competing interests. For example, one’s company may require frequent flights, which competes with environmental commitments at a larger-scale of cooperation. As such, individuals may be required to choose to cooperate with some groups at the expense of the others. We analytically model cooperation supported by indirect reciprocity with individuals who belong to both a small-scale, local group embedded within a larger-scale, global group. To model cooperation occurring simultaneously at different scales, we extend previous work (Panchanathan & Boyd, 2004) modelling cooperation in a mutual-aid game (MAG) conditional upon cooperation in a previous public goods game (PGG). In our extension, individuals can contribute to either a larger, global PGG or a smaller, local PGG with multipliers adjusted to create competing interests. Individuals then play a MAG amongst their local group. The model shows that by manipulating the multipliers of each PGG, these competing scales can undermine one another. This suggests that indirect reciprocity can maintain cooperation within one cultural-group, while leading to defection among groups with competing interests.

Competing Scales of Indirect Reciprocity

**Author(s):** Borgerhoff Mulder, M; Andrews, JB Introduction: The conditions responsible for the uptake, spread and decay of institutions lie at the heart of cultural evolutionary theorizing. Conservation interventions provide “natural experiments” to explore such dynamics. We use a failed Reduced Emissions from Deforestation & Land Degradation (REDD+) project in Zanzibar to explore two questions. How do institutions introduced by REDD+ continue to spread across the island, despite the absence of carbon payments? Second, has exposure to REDD+ influenced residents' willingness to participate in future payment for ecosystem schemes? Methods: We use interviews with community leader interviews and Willingness To Accept (WTA) data at a community and individual level to investigate how exposure to programming affects future willingness, and how various traits (age, gender, time preferences, wealth, conservation committee membership and forest dependence) moderate the effect. Results: We show that (1) externally-seeded institutional interventions can accrete their own momentum and spread, despite the absence of payments, and (2) exposure to even a failed REDD+ programme encourages future participation in conservation among some demographics. As a Conclusion, we highlight the relevance of cultural evolutionary theory for designing sustainable and endogenously-spreading development/conservation policy.

How Institutions Persist: Analyses of a REDD+ Programme on Pemba Island, Zanzibar

**Author(s):** Lee, H; Schönwiesner, M; Jacoby, N; Park, M

Background: Music is a rich cultural product that is practiced across all known cultures and throughout history, making it an attractive medium to study the transmission and evolution of culture. However, previous research on empirical analysis of music predominantly relied on Western songs, limiting our understanding to WEIRD countries. 
 Method: We introduce a novel dataset called GlobalPOP, which gathers music records from 55 countries since the 1950s by crawling web pages and manually transcribing from books and magazines. The dataset contains over 4 million entries and 254,234 songs with acoustic information, lyrics, and other meta-data gathered from various sources. 
 Results: Using this rich dataset, we provide a quantitative picture on how the general preference of music has converged and diverged across the globe over the last seven decades. Our preliminary findings indicate that most acoustic features reveal a country-specific or regional trend (e.g., danceability, tempo, energy) that can be grouped by the spoken-language and geographical proximity, whereas only a handful of low-level features can be considered as a global trend (e.g., song duration, loudness). 
 Conclusion: We present the first empirical work on the evolution of cross-cultural music preferences by making use of the most comprehensive longitudinal music chart data which will become open-access.

Why don't they get drunk? Alcoholic beverages in non-industrial societies

Downloads

Next from Cultural Evolution Society 2022

Associative learning and cultural transmission: We teach to novices the variants we learned from experts, and to peers the variants we learned from other peers!

Similar lecture

Implementing Positive Psychology in Teaching Physics

Stay up to date with the latest Underline news!

PRESENTATIONS

CONFERENCES

COMPANY

RESOURCES