Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:54:23.094Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Maintenance of cultural diversity: Social roles, social networks, and cognitive networks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2014

Marshall Abrams*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-1260. [email protected]://members.logical.net/~marshall

Abstract

Smaldino suggests that patterns that give rise to group-level cultural traits can also increase individual-level cultural diversity. I distinguish social roles and related social network structures and discuss ways in which each might maintain diversity. I suggest that cognitive analogs of “cohesion,” a property of networks that helps maintenance of diversity, might mediate the effects of social roles on diversity.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, M. (2013) A moderate role for cognitive models in agent-based modeling of cultural change. Complex Adaptive Systems Modeling 1(16):133. http://www.casmodeling.com/content/1/1/16 Google Scholar
Alexander, J. M. (2007) The structural evolution of morality. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atran, S. & Medin, D. (2008) The native mind and the cultural construction of nature. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Axelrod, R. (1997) The dissemination of culture: A model with local convergence and global polarization. The Journal of Conflict Resolution 41(2): 203–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. (1985) Culture and the evolutionary process. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Colombo, M. (2013) Moving forward (and beyond) the modularity debate: A network perspective. Philosophy of Science 80(3):356–77.Google Scholar
DeGroot, M. H. (1974) Reaching a consensus. Journal of the American Statistical Association 69(345):118–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durham, W. H. (1991) Coevolution: Genes, culture, and human diversity. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Durham, W. H. (1992) Applications of evolutionary culture theory. Annual Review of Anthropology 21:331–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grim, P., Singer, D. J., Reade, C., & Fisher, S. (2011) Information dynamics across linked sub-networks: Genes, germs, and memes. In: Proceedings, AAAI Fall Symposium on Complex Systems: Energy, Information, and Intelligence FS-11-03, pp. 6675. AAAI Press.Google Scholar
Hegselmann, R. & Krause, U. (2002) Opinion dynamics and bounded confidence: Models, analysis, and simulation. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 5(3):133.Google Scholar
Henrich, J. & Broesch, J. (2011) On the nature of cultural transmission networks: Evidence from Fijian villages for adaptive learning biases. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 336:1139–48.Google Scholar
Lehrer, K. & Wagner, C. (1981) Rational consensus in science and society. D. Reidel Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, S. (2000) Contagion. Review of Economic Studies 67:5778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, S. T., Simpkins, B. & Rasmussen, L. (2010) Incorporating representation when modeling cultural dynamics: Analysis of the bounded influence conjecture. In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Cognitive Social Sciences: Grounding the Social Sciences in the Cognitive Sciences? pp. 2934, ed. Sun, R.. Troy, NY 12180, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Technical Report 2010-RS-0001.Google Scholar
Newman, M. E. J. (2010) Networks: An introduction. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vega-Redondo, F. (2007) Complex social networks. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wasserman, S. & Faust, K. (1994) Social network analysis: Methods and applications. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, H. P. (1998) Individual strategy and social structure: An evolutionary theory of institutions. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Zollman, K. J. (2013) Network epistemology: Communication in epistemic communities. Philosophy Compass 8(1):1527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar