Cultural macroevolution matters

PNAS • Vol/Iss. 114(30) • PNAS • • Published In • Pages: 7846–7852 •
By Gray, Russell D. , Watts, Joseph

Abstract

Researchers sampled 106 Austronesian societies from the Pulotu database to study the way political complexity evolves in relation to religious beliefs and practices. Specifically, they attempt to test the causal theory that supernatural punishment played a causal role in the emergence of large, complex societies. They use phylogenetic models to control for Galton's Problem in testing the supernatural punishment hypothesis in an effort to demonstrate the effectiveness of utilizing cross-cultural datasets in evaluating evolutionary change in human social organization.
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: noah.rossen  milagro.escobar  anj.droe