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- Jansson, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
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Cultural Systems
- 2024
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many cultural phenomena cannot be understood by studying traits in isolation. Instead, they are embedded in webs of relations, layered with rich social meaning, and sequentially acquired and evaluated, \emph{filtered}, in light of previously acquired traits. Incorporating multiple traits and their relations is needed to understand the organization, dynamics, and emergent products of cultural evolution. We argue that a systems approach offers the potential for: (i) a more thorough understanding of the source and character of emergent phenomena, crucial for understanding the origin and historical development of culture; (ii) an increased scope of cultural evolution, whereby faithful transmission, self-organization and filtering of culture can be accounted for by systems dynamics without the need for strong assumptions about innate machinery; and (iii) a more robust theoretical connection between cultural evolution and processes of development as they are studied in developmental psychology and related fields.
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| 2. |
- Jansson, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
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Modelling cultural systems and selective filters
- 2024
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A specific goal of the field of cultural evolution is to understand how processes of transmission and selection at the individual level lead to population-wide patterns of cultural diversity and change. Models of cultural evolution have typically assumed that traits are independent of one another and essentially exchangeable. But culture has a structure: traits bear relationships to one another that affect the transmission and selection process itself. Here we introduce a modelling framework to explore the effect of cultural structure on the process of learning. Through simulations, we find that introducing this simple structure changes the cultural dynamics. Based on a basic filtering mechanism for parsing these relationships, more elaborate cultural filters emerge. In a mostly incompatible cultural domain of traits, these filters organise culture into mostly (but not fully) consistent and stable systems. Incompatible domains produce small homogeneous cultures, while more compatibility increases size, diversity, and group divergence. When individuals copy based on a trait's features (here, its compatibility relationships) they produce more homogeneous cultures than when they copy based on the agent carrying the cultural trait. We discuss the implications of considering cultural systems and filters in the dynamics of cultural change.
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| 3. |
- Jansson, Fredrik, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Modelling the Evolution of Creoles
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Various theories have been proposed regarding the origin of creole languages. Describing a process where only the end result is documented involves dealing with several methodological difficulties. In this paper we try to deal with some of the issues by using a novel mathematical model together with detailed empirical data on the origin and structure of Mauritian Creole. Our main focus is on whetherMauritian Creole may have been created only from a mutual desire to communicate, without a target language or prestige bias. Our conclusions are affirmative. With a confirmation bias towards learning from successful communication, the model predicts Mauritian Creole better than any of the input languages, including the lexifier French, thus providing a compelling and specific hypothetical model of how creoles are created. The results also show that it may be possible for a creole to develop quickly after first contact, and that it was created mostly from material found in the input languages, but without inheriting their morphology.
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| 4. |
- Törnqvist, Maria, 1975-
(författare)
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Stunder av total sammansmältning : Essä i programboken för teaterföreställningen Ocean
- 2018
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Annan publikation (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Essä i programboken för teaterföreställningen Ocean. Pjäsen handlar om olika former av intimitet och utgår från forskningsprojektet "Intimitetens sociala former: Närhetspraktik och identitet i kollektivt boende, husdjursrelationer och pardans". Projektet, som finansieras av Vetenskapsrådet, undersöker kollektivboenden, relationen mellan människor och djur, ridskolor, stödgrupper för sexmissbrukare och dansentusiaster. Pjäsen inkluderar även ett särskilt fokus på relationer över nätet. Pjäsen är skriven och regisserad av Paula Stenström Öhman. Pjäsen kunde förverkligas bland annat tack vare ett anslag från Riksbankens jubileumsfond, genom projektet Sociologi för scen.
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