A quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material culture.

Questions about the evolution of material culture are widespread in the humanities and social sciences. Statistical modeling of long-term changes in material culture is less common due to a lack of appropriate frameworks. Our goal is to close this gap and provide robust statistical methods for exami...

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Main Authors: Erik Gjesfjeld, Daniele Silvestro, Jonathan Chang, Bernard Koch, Jacob G Foster, Michael E Alfaro
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2020-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227579
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spelling doaj-dec45762b0dd4ea1a86811e9bdd164a12021-03-03T21:27:35ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032020-01-01152e022757910.1371/journal.pone.0227579A quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material culture.Erik GjesfjeldDaniele SilvestroJonathan ChangBernard KochJacob G FosterMichael E AlfaroQuestions about the evolution of material culture are widespread in the humanities and social sciences. Statistical modeling of long-term changes in material culture is less common due to a lack of appropriate frameworks. Our goal is to close this gap and provide robust statistical methods for examining changes in the diversity of material culture. We provide an open-source and quantitative workflow for estimating rates of origination, extinction, and preservation, as well as identifying key shift points in the diversification histories of material culture. We demonstrate our approach using two distinct kinds of data: age ranges for the production of American car models, and radiocarbon dates associated with archaeological cultures of the European Neolithic. Our approach improves on existing frameworks by disentangling the relative contributions of origination and extinction to diversification. Our method also permits rigorous statistical testing of competing hypotheses to explain changes in diversity. Finally, we stress the value of a flexible approach that can be applied to data in various forms; this flexibility allows scholars to explore commonalities between forms of material culture and ask questions about the general properties of cultural change.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227579
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Erik Gjesfjeld
Daniele Silvestro
Jonathan Chang
Bernard Koch
Jacob G Foster
Michael E Alfaro
spellingShingle Erik Gjesfjeld
Daniele Silvestro
Jonathan Chang
Bernard Koch
Jacob G Foster
Michael E Alfaro
A quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material culture.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Erik Gjesfjeld
Daniele Silvestro
Jonathan Chang
Bernard Koch
Jacob G Foster
Michael E Alfaro
author_sort Erik Gjesfjeld
title A quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material culture.
title_short A quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material culture.
title_full A quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material culture.
title_fullStr A quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material culture.
title_full_unstemmed A quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material culture.
title_sort quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material culture.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2020-01-01
description Questions about the evolution of material culture are widespread in the humanities and social sciences. Statistical modeling of long-term changes in material culture is less common due to a lack of appropriate frameworks. Our goal is to close this gap and provide robust statistical methods for examining changes in the diversity of material culture. We provide an open-source and quantitative workflow for estimating rates of origination, extinction, and preservation, as well as identifying key shift points in the diversification histories of material culture. We demonstrate our approach using two distinct kinds of data: age ranges for the production of American car models, and radiocarbon dates associated with archaeological cultures of the European Neolithic. Our approach improves on existing frameworks by disentangling the relative contributions of origination and extinction to diversification. Our method also permits rigorous statistical testing of competing hypotheses to explain changes in diversity. Finally, we stress the value of a flexible approach that can be applied to data in various forms; this flexibility allows scholars to explore commonalities between forms of material culture and ask questions about the general properties of cultural change.
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227579
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