Random copying and cultural evolution.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Behavior↗
Biomedical subjects
Stephen J Shennan
Publications and source records attributed to Stephen J Shennan.
Random drift and culture change.
We show that the frequency distributions of cultural variants, in three different real-world examples--first names, archaeological pottery and applications for technology patents--follow power laws that can be explained by a simple model of random drift. We conclude that cultural and economic choices often reflect a decision process that is value-neutral; this result has far-reaching testable implications for social-science research.
Computer Simulation↗