A Complex Systems Approach to Human Cultural Evolution

Abstract

This thesis will use two abstract computational models to investigate a number of outstanding questions related to human cultural evolution. Using simulations explanations for a number of phenomena within the archaeological record will be put forward. These will include the discontinuous cultural evolution patterns, the broadening of human diet and the extinction of the Neanderthals. The central theme throughout these findings is that it is the delity of transfer, and by extension the increase in complexity of early hominid culture, that constrains the subsistence strategies used within the Palaeolithic era, whilst the form of the resources dictates the form that these strategies will take. Key to these dynamics is the territorial competition between groups, with a more diverse strategy leading to more efficient groups that can encroach on the less efficient, reducing the carrying capacity and causing the population to move below the minimum group size allowed, thereby becoming extinct.