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Cultural Transmission And Evolution Mpb 16 Volume 16
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Book Synopsis Cultural Transmission and Evolution (MPB-16), Volume 16 by : L L Cavalli-sforza
Download or read book Cultural Transmission and Evolution (MPB-16), Volume 16 written by L L Cavalli-sforza and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A number of scholars have found that concepts such as mutation, selection, and random drift, which emerged from the theory of biological evolution, may also explain evolutionary phenomena in other disciplines as well. Drawing on these concepts, Professors Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman classify and systematize the various modes of transmitting "culture" and explore their consequences for cultural evolution. In the process, they develop a mathematical theory of the non-genetic transmission of cultural traits that provides a framework for future investigations in quantitative social and anthropological science. The authors use quantitative models that incorporate the various modes of transmission (for example, parent-child, peer-peer, and teacher-student), and evaluate data from sociology, archaeology, and epidemiology in terms of the models. They show that the various modes of transmission in conjunction with cultural and natural selection produce various rates of cultural evolution and various degrees of diversity within and between groups. The same framework can be used for explaining phenomena as apparently unrelated as linguistics, epidemics, social values and customs, and diffusion of innovations. The authors conclude that cultural transmission is an essential factor in the study of cultural change.
Author :Los Angeles Robert Boyd Professor of Anthropology University of California Publisher :Oxford University Press, USA ISBN 13 :9780198040088 Total Pages :468 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (4 download)
Book Synopsis The Origin and Evolution of Cultures by : Los Angeles Robert Boyd Professor of Anthropology University of California
Download or read book The Origin and Evolution of Cultures written by Los Angeles Robert Boyd Professor of Anthropology University of California and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2004-12-22 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oxford presents, in one convenient and coherently organized volume, 20 influential but until now relatively inaccessible articles that form the backbone of Boyd and Richerson's path-breaking work on evolution and culture. Their interdisciplinary research is based on two notions. First, that culture is crucial for understanding human behavior; unlike other organisms, socially transmitted beliefs, attitudes, and values heavily influence our behavior. Secondly, culture is part of biology: the capacity to acquire and transmit culture is a derived component of human psychology, and the contents of culture are deeply intertwined with our biology. Culture then is a pool of information, stored in the brains of the population that gets transmitted from one brain to another by social learning processes. Therefore, culture can account for both our outstanding ecological success as well as the maladaptations that characterize much of human behavior. The interest in this collection will span anthropology, psychology, economics, philosophy, and political science.
Book Synopsis Theoretical Studies on Sex Ratio Evolution. (MPB-22), Volume 22 by : Samuel Karlin
Download or read book Theoretical Studies on Sex Ratio Evolution. (MPB-22), Volume 22 written by Samuel Karlin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with a key area of population genetics: the ratio of the sexes in a population, or the allocation of resources to male versus female reproductive function. Samuel Karlin and Sabin Lessard establish the formal theoretical aspects of the evolution of sex ratio within the constraints of genetic mechanisms of sex determination. Their results generalize and unify existing work on the topic, strengthening previous conceptions in some cases and, in other instances, offering new directions of research. There are two main approaches to understanding the causes and effects of sex ratio. One approach focuses on the optimization and adaptive functions of sex allocation, while the other emphasizes the consequences of genetic sex determination mechanisms. In discussing the utility of these two approaches, Professors Karlin and Lessard examine the principal sex-determining mechanisms and facts involved in sex ratio representations, the various genetic and environmental factors that contribute to adaptive sex expression, and the evolution of sex determining systems and controls. From a population genetic perspective, the authors derive evolutionary properties in support of the high incidence of 1:1 sex ratio in natural populations and investigate the conditions that can explain the occurrence of biased sex ratio.
Book Synopsis Population Harvesting (MPB-27), Volume 27 by : Wayne M. Getz
Download or read book Population Harvesting (MPB-27), Volume 27 written by Wayne M. Getz and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether in felling trees for wood, rearing insects for biological control, or culling animals for conservation purposes, efficient management of biological systems requires quantitative analysis of population growth and harvesting policies. Aiming to encourage the exchange of ideas among scientists involved in the management of fisheries, wildlife, forest stands, and pest control, the authors of this work present a general framework for modeling populations that reproduce seasonally and that have age or stage structure as an essential component of management strategy. The book represents the first time that examples from such diverse areas of biological resource management have been brought together in a unified modeling framework using the standard notation of mathematical systems theory. In addition, the authors combine a nonlinear extension of Leslie matrix theory and certain linear elements, thereby permitting interesting analytical results and the creation of compact, realistic simulation models of resource systems.
Book Synopsis Population Ecology of Individuals. (MPB-25), Volume 25 by : Adam Lomnicki
Download or read book Population Ecology of Individuals. (MPB-25), Volume 25 written by Adam Lomnicki and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A common tendency in the field of population ecology has been to overlook individual differences by treating populations as homogeneous units; conversely, in behavioral ecology the tendency has been to concentrate on how individual behavior is shaped by evolutionary forces, but not on how this behavior affects population dynamics. Adam Lomnicki and others aim to remedy this one-sidedness by showing that the overall dynamical behavior of populations must ultimately be understood in terms of the behavior of individuals. Professor Lomnicki's wide-ranging presentation of this approach includes simple mathematical models aimed at describing both the origin and consequences of individual variation among plants and animals. The author contends that further progress in population ecology will require taking into account individual differences other than sex, age, and taxonomic affiliation--unequal access to resources, for instance. Population ecologists who adopt this viewpoint may discover new answers to classical questions of population ecology. Partly because it uses a variety of examples from many taxonomic groups, this work will appeal not only to population ecologists but to ecologists in general.
Book Synopsis A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems. (MPB-23), Volume 23 by : Robert V. O'Neill
Download or read book A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems. (MPB-23), Volume 23 written by Robert V. O'Neill and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Ecosystem" is an intuitively appealing concept to most ecologists, but, in spite of its widespread use, the term remains diffuse and ambiguous. The authors of this book argue that previous attempts to define the concept have been derived from particular viewpoints to the exclusion of others equally possible. They offer instead a more general line of thought based on hierarchy theory. Their contribution should help to counteract the present separation of subdisciplines in ecology and to bring functional and population/community ecologists closer to a common approach. Developed as a way of understanding highly complex organized systems, hierarchy theory has at its center the idea that organization results from differences in process rates. To the authors the theory suggests an objective way of decomposing ecosystems into their component parts. The results thus obtained offer a rewarding method for integrating various schools of ecology.
Book Synopsis The Florida Scrub Jay (MPB-20), Volume 20 by : Glen Everett Woolfenden
Download or read book The Florida Scrub Jay (MPB-20), Volume 20 written by Glen Everett Woolfenden and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Florida Scrub Jays are an excellent example of a cooperative-breeding species, in which adult birds often help raise offspring not their own. For more than a decade Glen E. Woolfenden and John W. Fitzpatrick studied a marked population of these birds in an attempt to establish a demographic base for understanding the phenomenon of "helping at the nest." By studying both population biology and behavior, the authors found that habitat restraints, rather than kin selection, are the main source of the behavior of Florida Scrub Jays: the goal of increasing the number of close relatives other than descendants in future generations is of relatively minor importance in their cooperative-breeding behavior. The Florida Scrub Jay lives only in the Florida oak scrub. All acceptable habitat is constantly filled with breeders. Each year about half of the pairs are assisted by one to several nonbreeding helpers. This book provides extensive data on fecundity, survivorship, relatedness, and dispersal to establish the demographic milieu and to address questions arising out of observed helping behavior--whom, how, when, and why the helpers help.
Book Synopsis Mate Choice in Plants (MPB-19), Volume 19 by : Nancy Burley
Download or read book Mate Choice in Plants (MPB-19), Volume 19 written by Nancy Burley and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book maintains that higher plants manifest some degree of sexual selection, and it begins to build a framework that unifies many features of plant reproduction previously considered unrelated. Reviewing evidence for sexual selection in plants, the authors discuss possible male-female interactions, concluding with an extensive set of hypotheses for testing. Mechanisms that could be employed in sexual selection in plants include various cellular mechanisms, such as both nuclear and cytoplasmic genetics, B chromosomes, and paternal contributions to the zygote, as well as abortion, double fertilization, delayed fertilization, and certain forms of polyembryony. This study compares the consequences of these processes for the evolution of mate choice in "gymnosperms" and angiosperms.
Book Synopsis Adaptive Geometry of Trees (MPB-3), Volume 3 by : Henry S. Horn
Download or read book Adaptive Geometry of Trees (MPB-3), Volume 3 written by Henry S. Horn and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through use of the models Professor Horn has devised, plant ecologists, foresters, and botanists will be able to predict the growth and productivity of a forest, the invading and senile species in a forest, the effect of shade tolerance on forest succession, and similar questions.
Book Synopsis Population Ecology of the Cooperatively Breeding Acorn Woodpecker. (MPB-24), Volume 24 by : Walter D. Koenig
Download or read book Population Ecology of the Cooperatively Breeding Acorn Woodpecker. (MPB-24), Volume 24 written by Walter D. Koenig and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since the acorn woodpecker was observed and described by Spanish explorers, its behavior--particularly the unique habit of caching acorns in specialized storage trees or granaries--has impressed observers. Acorn woodpeckers are also one of the few temperate zone species in which young are reared communally in family groups. This demographic study investigates the complexities of acorn storage and group living in acorn woodpeckers at Hastings Reservation in central coastal California. It is one of the most thorough studies of any avian social system to date.
Book Synopsis Natural Selection in the Wild. (MPB-21), Volume 21 by : John A. Endler
Download or read book Natural Selection in the Wild. (MPB-21), Volume 21 written by John A. Endler and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Natural selection is an immense and important subject, yet there have been few attempts to summarize its effects on natural populations, and fewer still which discuss the problems of working with natural selection in the wild. These are the purposes of John Endler's book. In it, he discusses the methods and problems involved in the demonstration and measurement of natural selection, presents the critical evidence for its existence, and places it in an evolutionary perspective. Professor Endler finds that there are a remarkable number of direct demonstrations of selection in a wide variety of animals and plants. The distribution of observed magnitudes of selection in natural populations is surprisingly broad, and it overlaps extensively the range of values found in artificial selection. He argues that the common assumption that selection is usually weak in natural populations is no longer tenable, but that natural selection is only one component of the process of evolution; natural selection can explain the change of frequencies of variants, but not their origins.
Book Synopsis Geographic Variation, Speciation and Clines. (MPB-10), Volume 10 by : John A. Endler
Download or read book Geographic Variation, Speciation and Clines. (MPB-10), Volume 10 written by John A. Endler and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Geographic Variation, Speciation and Clines explores the origins and development of geographic variation, divergence, and speciation. In particular it is concerned with genetic divergence as it is usually found on continents, among groups of populations isolated only by distance. Although earlier writers on this topic considered the effects of geography and dispersal, intense geographic differentiation and speciation were thought to require complete isolation. Professor Endler shows how geographic differentiation and speciation may develop in spite of continuous gene flow. Following a review of the diverse and scattered literature on gene flow and population differentiation, the author discusses the relationships among gene flow, dispersal, and migration. He then summarizes the factors which limit the geographic extent of gene flow, and those which allow steep clines to develop in the absence of barriers to gene flow. His analysis draws on examples from the field, experiments, and single- and multiple-locus models. The mechanism and conditions for parapatric speciation are presented: steepening clines, development into hybrid zones, and the evolution of sexual isolation. In the final chapter the author considers the interpretation of natural clines and the associated geographic patterns of subspecies and species.
Book Synopsis The Theory of Sex Allocation. (MPB-18), Volume 18 by : Eric L. Charnov
Download or read book The Theory of Sex Allocation. (MPB-18), Volume 18 written by Eric L. Charnov and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first comprehensive treatment of sex allocation from the standpoint of modern evolutionary theory. It shows how the determination of sex ratio, resource allocation to sperm versus egg within simultaneous hermaphroditism, and the evolution of sex reversal can he explained as examples of a single process. The genetical theory, developed mostly with graphical arguments, also specifies when hermaphroditism and dioecy are themselves evolutionary stable. The work balances theory with field and laboratory research, providing critical tests of the theory by empirical studies of sex ratio in parasitoid wasps and mites, sex reversal in shrimp and coral reef fish, and allocation of resources to pollen versus seeds in higher plants. In addition, the author oilers an encyclopedic review of the field and laboratory work of other scientists, reviews many as yet untested hypotheses in sex allocation, and points toward numerous plant and animal systems that hold promise for future tests.
Book Synopsis Resource Competition and Community Structure. (MPB-17), Volume 17 by : David Tilman
Download or read book Resource Competition and Community Structure. (MPB-17), Volume 17 written by David Tilman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the central questions of ecology is why there are so many different kinds of plants and animals. Here David Tilman presents a theory of how organisms compete for resources and the way their competition promotes diversity. Developing Hutchinson's suggestion that the main cause of diversity is the feeding relations of species, this book builds a mechanistic, resource-based explanation of the structure and functioning of ecological communities. In a detailed analysis of the Park Grass Experiments at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in England, the author demonstrates that the dramatic results of these 120 years of experimentation are consistent with his theory, as are observations in many other natural communities. The consumer-resource approach of this book is applicable to both animal and plant communities, but the majority of Professor Tilman's discussion concentrates on the structure of plant communities. All theoretical arguments are developed graphically, and formal mathematics is kept to a minimum. The final chapters of the book provide some testable speculations about resources and animal communities and explore such problems as the evolution of "super species," the differences between plant and animal community diversity patterns, and the cause of plant succession.
Book Synopsis Plant Strategies and the Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities. (MPB-26), Volume 26 by : David Tilman
Download or read book Plant Strategies and the Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities. (MPB-26), Volume 26 written by David Tilman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although ecologists have long considered morphology and life history to be important determinants of the distribution, abundance, and dynamics of plants in nature, this book contains the first theory to predict explicitly both the evolution of plant traits and the effects of these traits on plant community structure and dynamics. David Tilman focuses on the universal requirement of terrestrial plants for both below-ground and above-ground resources. The physical separation of these resources means that plants face an unavoidable tradeoff. To obtain a higher proportion of one resource, a plant must allocate more of its growth to the structures involved in its acquisition, and thus necessarily obtain a lower proportion of another resource. Professor Tilman presents a simple theory that includes this constraint and tradeoff, and uses the theory to explore the evolution of plant life histories and morphologies along productivity and disturbance gradients. The book shows that relative growth rate, which is predicted to be strongly influenced by a plant's proportional allocation to leaves, is a major determinant of the transient dynamics of competition. These dynamics may explain the differences between successions on poor versus rich soils and suggest that most field experiments performed to date have been of too short a duration to allow unambiguous interpretation of their results.
Book Synopsis The Origin and Evolution of Cultures by : Robert Boyd
Download or read book The Origin and Evolution of Cultures written by Robert Boyd and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-01-20 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Origin and Evolution of Cultures presents articles based on two notions. That culture is crucial for understanding human behaviour; and that culture is part of biology. Interest in this collection will span anthropology, psychology, economics, philosophy, and political science.
Book Synopsis Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution by : Stephen Shennan
Download or read book Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution written by Stephen Shennan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers an integrative approach to the application of evolutionary theory in studies of cultural transmission and social evolution and reveals the enormous range of ways in which Darwinian ideas can lead to productive empirical research, the touchstone of any worthwhile theoretical perspective. While many recent works on cultural evolution adopt a specific theoretical framework, such as dual inheritance theory or human behavioral ecology, Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution emphasizes empirical analysis and includes authors who employ a range of backgrounds and methods to address aspects of culture from an evolutionary perspective. Editor Stephen Shennan has assembled archaeologists, evolutionary theorists, and ethnographers, whose essays cover a broad range of time periods, localities, cultural groups, and artifacts.
