Spatial (to the extent that it underpins social) segregation may
also, perhaps counter-intuitively, promote the long-term success
(i.e. widespread adoption) of cultural innovations.
There is an established literature in evolutionary
anthropology/archaeology suggesting that that cumulative cultural
evolution requires a large enough population or a high enough
migration rate between subpopulations to offfset losses due to
drift and the low fidelity of social learning. However, Enrico
Crema and I (Human Biology, 87(3):151-168) carried out simulations
which suggest that when the payoff of adopting a cultural trait is
sufficiently uncertain the rate of cultural evolution resulting
from copy-the-best social learning is maximized by social learning
within social cliques of intermediate size. This is due to
sampling effects in which increasing population size actually
increases the probability of loss of a beneficial novel trait when
it is very rare. It seems that under at least some circumstances
social cliques can theoretically serve an important function as
'cultural incubators' which promote the initial survival of novel
traits.
Mark Lake
Hofstede, Gertjan <[log in to unmask]> writes:
> Yes, spatial segregation is an evolutionary engine. Elegant to
> show it with the wolf-sheep model. Makes me think of Menno
> Schilthuizen's recent book 'Darwin comes to town' that shows how
> cities, to many organisms, have recently become like Galapagos
> archipelagos that precipitate a new species radiation
> cycle. (http://schilthuizen.com)
>
> Cheers
>
> Gert Jan
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: News and discussion about computer simulation in the
> social sciences <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Penn, Alan
> Sent: woensdag 18 juli 2018 10:35
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [SIMSOC] SIMSOC Digest - 16 Jul 2018 to 17 Jul 2018
> (#2018-132)
>
> ah that is interesting - spatial segregation into poorly
> connected regions should act as a buffer to cyclical dynamics -
> a bit like a capacitor in electrical circuits. Segregation also
> has a role in speciation - thus different species diverge in the
> different Galapagos islands.
> Alan
>
>> On 18 Jul 2018, at 09:02, Ken Kahn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Mike Bithell wrote:
>> ... at continental scale perhaps it is quite difficult for a
>> single species to cover enough ground to really exhaust the
>> environment ...
>>
>> I was took the NetLogo wolf and sheep (and grass) model and
>> split it into two regions with barrier between them with a
>> small hole. Often the animals would all die in one region only
>> to be repopulated later. Presumably with more nearly isolated
>> regions things become even more stable.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> -ken
>>
>> On Wed, 18 Jul 2018 at 01:07, SIMSOC automatic digest system
>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> There is 1 message totaling 38 lines in this issue.
>>
>> Topics of the day:
>>
>> 1. Interesting "Evolutionary" Finding: Uh-Oh?
>>
>> ########################################################################
>>
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>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2018 15:27:21 +0100
>> From: Mike Bithell <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: Interesting "Evolutionary" Finding: Uh-Oh?
>>
>> Just to add to this discussion - the case of Rapa Nui is
>> disputed - see e.g. Rainbird (2002) "A message for our future?
>> The Rapa Nui (Easter Island) ecodisaster and Pacific island
>> environments" - there's actually very little convincing
>> evidence that Rapa Nui society collapsed as a result of
>> environmental destruction, although the native palm tree did
>> become extinct sometime after or around the time at which
>> people arrived: the people seem to have adapted with
>> rock-gardens to grow crops, in the absence of being able to
>> fish in the deep ocean. What is very clear is that the
>> Europeans very effectively destroyed Rapa Nui society with the
>> 200 or so years after they encountered it.
>> Edmund's model, on the other hand, seems to align well with the
>> standard Hardin tragedy of the commons scenario - if there is
>> no collective pressure on agents to not consume all resource
>> (and they have no foresight), and they gain a temporary benefit
>> from locally exhausting it, then what would prevent its
>> destruction? Agents able to capture all resource rapidly at the
>> expense of others you might think would even be favoured. My
>> experience of small ecosystem models of this type is that they
>> tend to be quite tricky to get to survive in the long term,
>> since even a relatively slow degradation of the environmental
>> resource can lead to its long-term collapse (and stochastic
>> noise + oscillations leading to extinction doesn't help) -
>> however, at continental scale perhaps it is quite difficult for
>> a single species to cover enough ground to really exhaust the
>> environment (until now, that is...)
>>
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>> ------------------------------
>>
>> End of SIMSOC Digest - 16 Jul 2018 to 17 Jul 2018 (#2018-132)
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>>
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>
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--
Dr Mark Lake
Senior Lecturer in Archaeology
UCL Institute of Archaeology
31-34 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PY
UK
Tel: +44 (0)207 679 7495
Fax: +44 (0)207 383 2572
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