Standard Cross-Cultural Sample

Murdock, George Peter; White, Dougľas R.

doi:10.2307/3772907

Cited by 936 publications

(604 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Mace and Pagel (1994) argued that the phylogenetic analyses used by systematists are superior to previous attempts to solve Galton's problem, such as Murdock's crosscultural sample (Murdock & White 1969) or the statistical removal of inherited traits (e.g., Dow et al 1984), both of which involve the loss of important aspects of the data. Mace and Pagel (1994) treated cultural traits as equivalent to biological characters, with independent instances of cultural change occurring when a cultural trait is invented, acquired from another culture, changed, or lost.…”

Section: Macroevolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a unified science of cultural evolution

2006

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We suggest that human culture exhibits key Darwinian evolutionary properties, and argue that the structure of a science of cultural evolution should share fundamental features with the structure of the science of biological evolution. This latter claim is tested by outlining the methods and approaches employed by the principal subdisciplines of evolutionary biology and assessing whether there is an existing or potential corresponding approach to the study of cultural evolution. Existing approaches within anthropology and archaeology demonstrate a good match with the macroevolutionary methods of systematics, paleobiology, and biogeography, whereas mathematical models derived from population genetics have been successfully developed to study cultural microevolution. Much potential exists for experimental simulations and field studies of cultural microevolution, where there are opportunities to borrow further methods and hypotheses from biology. Potential also exists for the cultural equivalent of molecular genetics in "social cognitive neuroscience," although many fundamental issues have yet to be resolved. It is argued that studying culture within a unifying evolutionary framework has the potential to integrate a number of separate disciplines within the social sciences.

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Section: Macroevolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a unified science of cultural evolution

2006

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“…As with species, we need to control for non-independence among cultures when statistically testing coevolutionary hypotheses in cultural or biocultural evolution [36], otherwise type 1 errors (false positive results) will be inflated, as cultures within clades containing the same traits are spuriously treated as independent evolutionary events. One simple and widely used method to avoid dependence among cultures is to sample cultures thinly across the world by using the Standard Cross-cultural Sample (SCCS) [37], which consists of 196 cultures worldwide. However, in using such a sample, one discards variance that could potentially be used to test hypotheses, leading to Type 2 errors and a loss of the ability to make detailed regional studies; moreover, one does not eliminate similarity that results from more distant historical relationships among cultures [36].…”

Section: Phylogenetic Comparative Tests Of Cultural Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A phylogenetic approach to cultural evolution

Mace¹,

Holden²

2005

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

227

177

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“…Information about migration patterns came from different sources for different populations (Cavalli-Sforza 1986;Cavalli-Sforza and Cavalli-Sforza 1995;CavalliSforza et al 1994;Levinson 1991Levinson -1996Murdock 1967;Nimuendaju 1952;Steward 1946Steward -1950von Furer-Haimendorf 1985). Two variables were created to characterize the migration patterns of these populations: macro-migration and micro-migration.…”

Section: Data On Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population Migration and the Variation of Dopamine D4 Receptor (DRD4) Allele Frequencies Around the Globe

Chen

Burton

Greenberger

et al. 1999

Evolution and Human Behavior

257

181

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This article reports an association between the variation of dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) allele frequencies around the globe and population migration patterns in prehistoric times. After compiling existing data on DRD4 allele frequencies of 2,320 individuals from 39 populations and on the migration pattern of these groups, we found that, compared to sedentary populations, migratory populations showed a higher proportion of long alleles for DRD4. The correlation between macro-migration (long-distance group migration) and the proportion of long alleles of DRD4 was .85 ( p Ͻ .001), and that between micro-migration (sedentary vs. nomadic settlement) and the proportion of long alleles was .52 ( p ϭ .001). We discussed the adaptive value of long alleles of DRD4-a genetic trait that has been linked in some studies to the personality trait of novelty-seeking and to hyperactivity-in migratory societies and the possibility of natural selection for a migration gene.

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Standard Cross-Cultural Sample

Cited by 936 publications

References 13 publications

Towards a unified science of cultural evolution

Towards a unified science of cultural evolution

A phylogenetic approach to cultural evolution

Population Migration and the Variation of Dopamine D4 Receptor (DRD4) Allele Frequencies Around the Globe

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