Denmark

 Religious beliefs show profound cultural and historical diversity, and this diversity can yield insights into the ecological and cognitive foundations of religion. However, most studies of religious belief use participants from large industrialized nations who belong to major world religions. Here we describe an initiative to extract qualitative descriptions and quantitative codes for two major kinds of religious beliefs—characteristics of gods and spirits, and characteristics of supernatural explanations—using the ethnographic record. Our data cover 115 societies, 850 different supernatural agents, and thousands of different supernatural explanations. We also feature rich meta-data describing the ethnographic texts (e.g., source, field date) and societies. In this presentation, we will share early empirical insights from this database and a timeline for making the qualitative and quantitative data publicly accessible.

Cultural Evolution Society 2022

A new ethnographic database of religious beliefs

Welcome to the Cultural Evolution Society (CES) Conference 2024, which was a hybrid conference held at Durham University (UK). The conference was hosted in Durham by the Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre (DCERC) with administrative assistance from the CES Transformation Fund team.

**For more information about the CES Conference, please visit the [CES Website Home Page](https://ces2024.webspace.durham.ac.uk/).**

#### Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre (DCERC) 
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
**Interdisciplinary study of cultural change and diversity**

We are a highly interdisciplinary group of researchers using evolutionary models to study cultural change and diversity. We apply cultural evolutionary methods to a wide variety of topics including cognition, innovation, social learning, technology, art, music, narrative, religion, sociality, language and communication. We have a growing interest in applying cultural evolutionary theory to current societal challenges such as understanding the spread of prosocial health behaviours and health conspiracies. 
**[Discover More](https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/cultural-evolution/)**

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Cultural Evolution Society Conference 2024

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.

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

**Author(s):** Ammar, M; Fogarty, L; Kandler, A The ability to remember many cultural traits, and the context in which it is best to use them, is a clear feature of human cognition. However, this is rarely considered in models of the evolution of social learning. Without memory such models found that the benefit of innovation increases with environmental variability and social learning is most useful in stable environments. In our agent-based model, we investigate the interaction between memory and social learning and its implication for adaptation. With memory, agents can store information about traits they have learned and recall this later. The environment can change between time steps and agents use stored information to assess their traits in the current environment. Here ‘forgetting’ is a probabilistic process where rarely used traits are more easily forgotten than those frequently used. We consider how the rates of forgetting and social learning co-evolve. Large memories limit the need for innovation in rapidly changing environments by increasing the probability that individuals have adaptive information after an environmental change. This is driven by the presence of reservoirs of unexpressed persistent cultural variation. We explore the structure of ‘ideal’ cultural repertoires, balancing the probability of using the wrong cultural trait with retaining beneficial traits. This balance in turn affects the amount of social learning in stable environments. This approach to memory in cultural evolution changes our understanding of the evolution of social learning in fluctuating environments.

Memory and Social Learning

Many artificial intelligence systems are developed which interact with human beings and other such systems, sometimes embodied as robots. Their behaviour is driven by the knowledge they have on their environment. This knowledge may be learnt from experience. This is actually what advertised machine learning systems do. However, such systems will only behave properly if this knowledge, or culture, is shared with others. This raises the question: can they socially evolve their knowledge as assumed in cultural evolution?
Answering this question calls for developments in computational cultural (knowledge) evolution. It is at a crossroad between two threads:
- Cultural knowledge evolution in which cultural evolution is applied to the knowledge and beliefs of organisms.
- Computational cultural evolution in which computer capabilities are used to synthetise and analyse cultural evolution. It may be both experimental in which short-term small experiments are performed, or observational, in which observations can be made in the long run on large populations.

Computational cultural knowledge evolution may actually cover two types of activities: Agent-based simulation of cultural evolution in which agents are a model that can predict how a modelled system works or Artificial cultural evolution in which programs or agents are new `organisms' exhibiting cultural evolution.
Both activities are worth pursuing to study the principles of cultural (knowledge) evolution. For instance, the discussion about other species failing to develop cumulative culture supports the conclusion that the human species has a unique feature: cumulativity. However, it may be more simply related to the capability to deal with complex cultural items which support cumulativity better or to rely on more elaborate adaptation mechanisms that provide this cumulativity. So far, it is not possible to decide. Similarly, it is difficult to provide direct evidence of the absence of replicator. Developing agents able to evolve cumulatively their culture could bring some insight in these debates.
We are experimenting with agents learning their knowledge from their environment and from other agents. They behave according to this knowledge and are able to adapt their knowledge in order to succeed in social games exploiting it. The advantage of using agents bearing an explicit representation of knowledge is that it is possible to assess the evolution of the properties of agents' knowledge. In particular, the accuracy, the consistency, or the diversity of the knowledge can be directly measured.

Can AI systems culturally evolve their knowledge?

**Author(s):** Mitchell, M; Hudson, E; Creanza, N Introduction 
In vocal-learning songbirds, song has been suggested to reinforce behavioral reproductive barriers between closely related species; this process may help facilitate speciation. Other explanations for song divergence are that songs would gradually accumulate random changes through drift, that morphological changes in birds would lead to changes in song features, or that sound-transmission properties of the local environment would lead to song differences between populations in different habitats.
 Approach
Here we test these competing hypotheses by analyzing 2726 community-science recordings of 42 species (21 sister species pairs) in the Passerellidae family of sparrows, using song-analysis software we developed. 
 Results
We found that geographic overlap was significantly associated with the degree to which sister species could be reliably distinguished by analyzing their song properties, and several song traits were found to evolve faster in sister species with range overlap than those without.
 Conclusions
Our results provide evidence that increased rates of cultural evolution could be a mechanism for population differentiation in songbirds.

Can cultural evolution facilitate speciation in songbirds?

**Author(s):** Leon, X; Creanza, N Introduction 
Since songbirds use their songs for species recognition, we investigated whether two newly formed species could be distinguished by their songs. Differences in the songs of the Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) and Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) are evident; however, intermediate songs have been reported, particularly in the Great Plains where their breeding ranges overlap. 
Approach
We obtained recordings from Xeno-canto and performed syllable segmentation and song analysis using our recently published software, Chipper. Using log-transformed syllable features, we analyzed song variation across the geographic range of the two species and used a Random Forest Model to predict species classification. 
Results 
Our data showed several patterns, including a positive correlation between the longitude coordinates and the bout duration (rho = 0.612, p < 2.2e-16). Additionally, our model had an accuracy of 89.4% using the log-transformed syllable features. 
Conclusions
Our results indicate that the songs of the Spotted and Eastern Towhees exhibit geographic patterns, and these closely related species can be distinguished by their songs with high accuracy using our model.

Role of learned song in the evolution and speciation of Eastern and Spotted Towhees

**Author(s):** McCauley, B; Roberts, S; Xygalatas, D; Collard, M; Introduction: Permanent body modification (PBM) practices (e.g. tattooing, scarring, piercing) have been a global phenomenon for tens of thousands of years and continue to grow in popularity. However, their potential costs (e.g. infection, infertility, even death) are such that they represent an evolutionary puzzle. Why do people undertake them?
Approach: We reviewed etic explanations for PBM from anthropology, archaeology, psychology, the cognitive science of religion, clinical medicine, and gender studies. We then attempted to interpret each of them in an evolutionary framework.
Results: We identified 31 explanations from over 350 sources. Thirteen of them effectively posit that PBM practices indirectly increase inclusive fitness via their impact on the modified individual’s group, while 10 suggest they directly increase inclusive fitness. The remaining explanations could not be recast in evolutionary terms.
Discussion: Despite the diversity in explanations for PBM practices, evolutionary theory enables most of them to be transformed into a set of competing hypotheses. The next challenge is to generate a systematic cross-cultural dataset on PBM with which to test the hypotheses.

Why do people engage in permanent body modification? A multidisciplinary review

Introduction: Childhood is a period of life unique to humans. Childhood may have evolved through the need to acquire knowledge and subsistence skills. In an attempt to evaluate the importance of learning for the evolution of childhood, previous research examined the increase with age of returns to foraging. Any increase could be due to increases in knowledge or other factors such as body size and strength. Materials and methods: In a population of part time children foragers on the island of Pemba, Tanzania, we collected anthropometric measures such as size and strength (N: 202), estimated knowledge (N: 93) and observed a variety of foraging trips (N trips: 310, N individuals: 116). We estimate the contribution of the different elements to foraging success. Preliminary results: We find that knowledge is important for foraging success 
Clearly defining the relative importance of somatic versus cognitive traits of forager children provides clues about the selective pressures leading to the evolution of early life history traits in our species.

Age specific foraging success and importance of ecological knowledge in Pemba, Tanzania

 Introduction: When the children of one ethnic group are educated by adults of a different ethnic group, cultural dynamics in one or both groups may be affected in ways that are poorly understood. Such a situation characterizes Western-style education received by, or imposed upon, many indigenous peoples. Here I examine changes in distributions of distinctive cultural norms across a range of domains among indigenous Matsigenka students and their Mestizo teachers in three boarding secondary schools in Amazonian Peru.
Methods: I use Bayesian item-response theory models to characterize the distributions of norms among students and teachers interviewed in 2017 and 2019, and compare them to such distributions among non-academic Matsigenka and Mestizos.
Results: The analyses suggest that, in some boarding schools, Matsigenka students may be adopting some of the distinctive norms of their Mestizo teachers. The extent of this pattern appears to be mediated by, among other things, the particular boarding school environment.
Discussion: I discuss these results in light of new theory predicting when and why members of a disempowered minority group will adopt norms of a powerful majority.

A longitudinal study of cultural dynamics in Amazonian boarding schools

**Author(s):** Defelipe, R. P.; Mendes, D.; França, I. F.; & Resende, B. Our goal was to provide a how-to guide to move infant observational research from lab to home. We searched four databases (Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, Frontiers in Psychology Special Issue) from January to February 2022, using ‘infant/children’, ‘online/web-based/tele-observation’, ‘pandemic/Covid-19’ as descriptors. Eligible papers were in English or Portuguese, investigated children up to 13 years, used remote technology, and applied observation as methodology. Most of the 60 papers were from Developmental Psychology, from North America (e.g. USA), investigated Caucasian infants up to one year, used supervised online platforms (e.g. Zoom), used computers instead mobiles or tablets, and put the child facing the screen or in face-to-face interaction with the parents. The studies mostly concluded that remote infant observational research is feasible, especially, if you: observe infants up to one year old; design a short (e.g. 5 minute-session) and simple (e.g. free-play) experimental tasks; has already met your participants in person; give financial feedback (e.g. Amazon gifts); and are not dealing with low-income population with unsuitable internet and/or technological devices. The extent to which in-person research can be adapted for remote settings needs future investigation to promotes targeted investment in innovation, design, implementation, and effectiveness.

Moving infant observational research from lab to home: partial results from a systematic review

**Author(s):** Claessens, S; Atkinson, Q. D. INTRODUCTION: Cross-national analyses test hypotheses about drivers of global variation in national outcomes. However, since nations are connected via spatial proximity and cultural ancestry, cross-national analyses often violate assumptions of non-independence, inflating false positive rates. Here, we test whether cross-national research in economics and psychology sufficiently accounts for non-independence. METHODS: We conducted a systematic literature review, a simulation study, and reanalyses of 12 previous studies to determine whether previous cross-national analyses sufficiently account for non-independence. RESULTS: Our literature review revealed that controls for non-independence are rare in economics and psychology. When studies do include controls for non-independence, our simulations suggest that commonly used methods continue to produce false positives. In addition, we show that half of our reanalyses are no longer significant after controlling for non-independence using global proximity matrices. DISCUSSION: Existing cross-national analyses must be treated with caution. We urge social scientists to sufficiently control for non-independence in cross-national research.

The non-independence of nations and why it matters

**Author(s):** Greenhill, Simon J. Forkel, Robert Introduction:
The last few decades have seen the publication of many language phylogenies. These phylogenies have proven to be incredibly useful for testing hypotheses about linguistic and cultural evolution. However, they can be hard to get hold of and require detailed phylogenetic knowledge to maximise their re-use. 
Materials and Methods:
Phlorest is a database of published language phylogenies that aims to standardise the outputs of these analyses to make them FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). First, each analysis is preprocessed to a consistent format, providing a summary tree and a posterior tree sample, linked where possible to the raw data. Each taxon in the analysis is mapped to catalogues like Glottolog and D-PLACE. Currently, Phlorest contains 42 phylogenies, covering a total of 3470 taxa from 1974 languages. 
Results/Findings:
In this talk I will present Phlorest and discuss the benefits it provides. First, phlorest enables replicability and reuse of these trees. Second, having these phylogenies aligned in time and space enables us to compare patterns and processes across the globe. Third, phlorest allows us to scale up to bigger questions by combining trees into super trees. Finally, phlorest allows us to highlight interesting big picture findings from historical linguistics to the wider public, providing a highly visible resource that brings this research to a wider audience.

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