Technology, Social Learning and Cultural Transmission among Northern Hunter-Gatherers

The general goal of this research is to understand the evolutionary underpinnings of human cultural and linguistic diversity. This approach starts with the observation that human beings share two inter-generational inheritance systems, one genetic and the other cultural. Cultural inheritance involves teaching, imitation and others forms of social learning in order for the information that makes up cultural traditions to be passed between individuals and from one generation to the next. While these two inheritance systems share some similarities and also some fundamental differences, it is now becoming clear that both these positive and negative analogies between genetic and cultural inheritance systems can fruitfully be explored by using theory, models and quantitative methods developed in the biological sciences. These inter-disciplinary approaches are generating new insights into the processes responsible for the generation of cultural and linguistic diversity, including the role of social learning strategies in the replication of diverse cultural traditions. To date, however, much work in this field has involved theoretical developments and simulation studies, with empirical research lagging behind due to the lack of high-resolution datasets. Work at the Arctic Centre in Groningen therefore focuses on development of empirical case-studies, and involves cross-cultural and comparative investigation of social learning and cultural inheritance and diversification across northern hunting-fisher-gatherer societies both in Northwest Siberia (via ethnoarchaeological fieldwork), and also along the Pacific Northwest Coast and in Northern California (working mainly with ethnohistoric sources). Diversity across a wide range of technological traditions has now been analyzed, including: transport technologies; vernacular architecture; ritual clothing and structures; subsistence and container technologies. The results indicate that diversity in material culture is strongly affected by the local dynamics of social learning, which in turn are structured by the kinship and post-marital residence patterns, settlement systems and wider human-environment relations and adaptations.