Agent-based model experiments cast doubt on Dunnell’s adaptive waste explanation for cultural elaboration

Ancient monuments are puzzling from an evolutionary perspective. It is obvious that their construction would have been costly in terms of energy, but it is not clear how they would have enhanced reproductive success. In the late 1980s, Robert Dunnell proposed a solution to this conundrum. He argued...

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Main Authors: W. Christopher Carleton, Brea McCauley, André Costopoulos, Mark Collard
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2019-01-01
Series:Science and Technology of Archaeological Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20548923.2019.1647648
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spelling doaj-2d058d5208af4c4fb31cf8effea5fe602020-11-25T02:33:49ZengTaylor & Francis GroupScience and Technology of Archaeological Research2054-89232019-01-015111710.1080/20548923.2019.16476481647648Agent-based model experiments cast doubt on Dunnell’s adaptive waste explanation for cultural elaborationW. Christopher Carleton0Brea McCauley1André Costopoulos2Mark Collard3Simon Fraser UniversitySimon Fraser UniversityUniversity of AlbertaSimon Fraser UniversityAncient monuments are puzzling from an evolutionary perspective. It is obvious that their construction would have been costly in terms of energy, but it is not clear how they would have enhanced reproductive success. In the late 1980s, Robert Dunnell proposed a solution to this conundrum. He argued that wasting energy on monuments and other forms of what he called “cultural elaboration” was adaptive in highly variable environments. Here, we report a study in which we used an agent-based model to test Dunnell’s hypothesis. We found that the propensity to waste was subject to strong negative selection regardless of the level of environmental variability. At the start of the simulation runs, agents wasted ca. 50% of the time but selection rapidly drove that rate down, ultimately settling at ca. 5–7%. This casts doubt on the ability of Dunnell’s hypothesis to explain instances of cultural elaboration in the archaeological record.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20548923.2019.1647648monumentscultural elaborationwaste hypothesisenvironmental variabilityagent-based modellingevolutionary archaeology
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author W. Christopher Carleton
Brea McCauley
André Costopoulos
Mark Collard
spellingShingle W. Christopher Carleton
Brea McCauley
André Costopoulos
Mark Collard
Agent-based model experiments cast doubt on Dunnell’s adaptive waste explanation for cultural elaboration
Science and Technology of Archaeological Research
monuments
cultural elaboration
waste hypothesis
environmental variability
agent-based modelling
evolutionary archaeology
author_facet W. Christopher Carleton
Brea McCauley
André Costopoulos
Mark Collard
author_sort W. Christopher Carleton
title Agent-based model experiments cast doubt on Dunnell’s adaptive waste explanation for cultural elaboration
title_short Agent-based model experiments cast doubt on Dunnell’s adaptive waste explanation for cultural elaboration
title_full Agent-based model experiments cast doubt on Dunnell’s adaptive waste explanation for cultural elaboration
title_fullStr Agent-based model experiments cast doubt on Dunnell’s adaptive waste explanation for cultural elaboration
title_full_unstemmed Agent-based model experiments cast doubt on Dunnell’s adaptive waste explanation for cultural elaboration
title_sort agent-based model experiments cast doubt on dunnell’s adaptive waste explanation for cultural elaboration
publisher Taylor & Francis Group
series Science and Technology of Archaeological Research
issn 2054-8923
publishDate 2019-01-01
description Ancient monuments are puzzling from an evolutionary perspective. It is obvious that their construction would have been costly in terms of energy, but it is not clear how they would have enhanced reproductive success. In the late 1980s, Robert Dunnell proposed a solution to this conundrum. He argued that wasting energy on monuments and other forms of what he called “cultural elaboration” was adaptive in highly variable environments. Here, we report a study in which we used an agent-based model to test Dunnell’s hypothesis. We found that the propensity to waste was subject to strong negative selection regardless of the level of environmental variability. At the start of the simulation runs, agents wasted ca. 50% of the time but selection rapidly drove that rate down, ultimately settling at ca. 5–7%. This casts doubt on the ability of Dunnell’s hypothesis to explain instances of cultural elaboration in the archaeological record.
topic monuments
cultural elaboration
waste hypothesis
environmental variability
agent-based modelling
evolutionary archaeology
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20548923.2019.1647648
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