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Cited by 579

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 22 of the 22 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Demography and Cultural Innovation: a Model and its Implications for the Emergence of Modern Human Culture

Open access
Shennan, Stephen·2001·Cambridge Archaeological Journal
DOI 10.1017/s0959774301000014
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Abstract

In recent years there has been a major growth of interest in exploring the analogies between the genetic transmission of information from one generation to the next and the processes of cultural transmission, in an attempt to obtain a greater understanding of how culture change occurs. This article uses computer simulation to explore the implications of a specific model of the relationship between demography and innovation within an evolutionary framework. The consequences of innovation appear far more successful in larger populations than in smaller ones. In conclusion, it is suggested that the model has major implications for the origins of modern human culture in the last 50,000 years, which may be seen not as the result of genetic mutations leading to improved cognitive capacities of individuals, but as a population consequence of the demographic growth and increased contact range which are evident at this time. It is also proposed that the model may be of general relevance for understanding the process of cultural evolution in modern and pre-modern humans.

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Crossref · 10.1017/s0959774301000014

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Metadata

Authors
Shennan, S.
Venue
Cambridge Archaeological Journal
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
2001-04
Volume
11
Issue
1
Pages
5-16
ISSN
  • 0959-7743 (ISSN-L)
  • 1474-0540
DOI
10.1017/s0959774301000014
OpenAlex
W2127150322
Cited by
579
References
22
FWCI
227.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Demography and Cultural Innovation: a Model and its Implications for the Emergence of Modern Human Culture. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1017/s0959774301000014
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Shennan, S. (2001). Demography and Cultural Innovation: a Model and its Implications for the Emergence of Modern Human Culture. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959774301000014

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.