Cultural complexity and demography: The case of folktakes
Evolution and Human Behavior • Vol/Iss. 38(2017) • Elsevier • • Published In • Pages: 474-480 •
By Acerbi, Alberto, Kendal, Jeremy, Tehrani, Jamshid J.
Hypothesis
Population size will have an influence on cultural complexity as measured by the number of animal and magic folk tales
Note
Strong positive support was found for a positive relationship between population size and the overall number of folktales in different societies. 5.5% and 94.5% quantiles of the posterior probability for animal tales and tales of magic are (0.35, 0.41) and (0.19, 0.24), respectively. (model using nineteenth century estimates of population size showed similar results)
| Test Name | Support | Significance | Coefficient | Tail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bayesian multilevel model with Poisson likelihood | Supported | n.a. | Beta=.39 (animal tales), .21 (tales of magic) | UNKNOWN |
| Variable Name | Variable Type | OCM Term(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Population Size | Independent | Population |
| Number of animal tales | Dependent | Literature, Literary Texts, Texts |
| Number of tales of magic | Dependent | Literature, Literary Texts, Texts |