Archaeology within a unified science of cultural evolution - Prof. Alex Mesoudi

“Archaeology within a unified science of cultural evolution” by Prof. Alex Mesoudi, Professor of Cultural Evolution at the University of Exeter
This talk was due to be given in November 2023 as part of the Garrod Research seminar series of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.
Abstract: I will provide an overview of modern cultural evolution theory, and suggest how archaeology fits into a unified science of cultural evolution. Cultural evolution is the idea that cultural change constitutes an inheritance process that bears some similarities with (but also differences to) genetic evolution. Cultural evolution researchers are interested in the processes by which cultural traits (e.g. archaeological artifacts) change and diversify over time. Some of these processes are psychological, such as tendencies to copy prestigious individuals or conform to group majorities, others are material, to do with the qualities of the traits being copied, and others are demographic, such as the effects of population size and structure. I will illustrate some of these ideas by presenting the results of past studies that have experimentally simulated patterns in the archaeological record. In the first, participants designed virtual arrowheads that could be copied by others, testing hypotheses about prehistoric projectile point variation in North America. In the second, participants designed and copied virtual handaxes, testing whether changes observed in real handaxes are consistent with unintentional copying error or whether intentional, directional change was important. The theory of cultural evolution has the potential to unify the social sciences just as it has the natural sciences, and archaeology stands to play a crucial role in this unified science of cultural evolution.
Many thanks to Prof. Mesoudi for providing this recording.

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Prof. Mesoudi, please repeat the sizing experiment with students formally trained in visual arts; especially sculpture students, but also including arts majors who have received a classical training in drawing and painting. When I was in middle school and again in high school, I attended magnet programs as an art student. I received approximately 3 hours a day in classical art instruction for approximately 6 years. I was jarred when you said that normal people cannot perceive size differences less than 3% as I could easily tell the difference in sizes between the examples shown. Perhaps, ancient knappers would have received equivalent training in size and shape perception from a young age and would consistently and significantly outperform average modern adults in this regard. This might explain the significant difference in observed variation noted at 27:00 in your lecture.