Macro-evolutionary studies of cultural diversity: a review of empirical studies of cultural transmission and cultural adaptation

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London Vol/Iss. 366(1563) The Royal Society Published In Pages: 402-411
By Mace, Ruth, Jordan, Fiona M.

Hypothesis

Many cultural traits in the realm of social organization, marriage, kinship and subsistence will be predicted by the phylogenetic nearest neighbors in Austronesian speaking societies.

Note

The results show that phylogenetic nearest neighbors (PNN) predicted slightly more cultural traits in comparison to geographical nearest neighbors (GNN). For instance, some social stratification traits like hereditary succession, former slavery, and wealth classes. Some economic traits regarding animal domesticates is also associated with PNN. Also, 43-48% of traits are not predicted by GNN or PNN.

Test

Test NameSupportSignificanceCoefficientTail
Logistic regressionSupportedp < 0.05UNKNOWNUNKNOWN