Modern phylogenetic methods are increasingly being used to address questions about
macro-level patterns in cultural evolution. These methods can illuminate the unobservable …

Ancient population expansions and dispersals often leave enduring signatures in the
cultural traditions of their descendants, as well as in their genes and languages. The …

Many recent evolutionary psychology and human behavioral ecology studies have tested
hypotheses by examining correlations between variables measured at a group level (eg …

Although there have long been links between research in historical linguistics and research
in biological evolution, the last few years have witnessed growth in historical linguistic …

Research examining institutionalized hierarchy tends to focus on chiefdoms and states,
while its emergence among small-scale societies remains poorly understood. Here, we test …

The behavioural variation among human societies is vast and unmatched in the animal
world. It is unclear whether this variation is due to variation in the ecological environment or …

A wide range of theories and methods inspired from evolutionary biology have recently been
used to investigate temporal changes in the frequency of archaeological material. Here we …

We present formal evolutionary models for the origins and persistence of the practice of
Female Genital Modification (FGMo). We then test the implications of these models using …

While one has evolved and the other been consciously created, animal and military
camouflage are expected to show many similar design principles. Using a unique database …

When speakers of different languages interact, they are likely to influence each other:
contact leaves traces in the linguistic record, which in turn can reveal geographical areas of …