Reticulation in phylomemetics

Practically every phylomemetic tree I have ever seen has illustrated branching - but not joining. However, it is well known that cultural evolution shows a considerable amount of joining. The result is part tree, part reticulated network - rather like the image associated with this post.

Should we be concerned that most phylomemetic trees paint an inaccurate picture of how cultural evolution operates? That most phylomemetic trees are inaccurate - through inheriting this systematic distortion?

On one hand, the fact that most evolution involves joining as well as splitting is an important issue which is poorly understood - and most phylomemetic trees reinforce the idea that evolution equals splitting - when they could be combating it. On the other hand, splitting-only trees are simpler than partially-reticulated ones - and this simplification is often a permissible one.

References

• Tyler, Tim (2011) Phylomemetics
• Tyler, Tim (2013) On Lewontin's Principles

Epic phylomemetic tree of world religions

Impressive work:

Version 2.0.

Version 1.0.

For the full-size image I recommend that you click here for version 1 and here for version 2.

I've included both versions to illustrate the point that not only are the worlds' religons evolving, but even the diagram of the worlds' relgions is evolving.

I was pleased to see that the second version included some horizontal meme transfer - something that was largely missing fro the first version.

For the source, visit the Human Odyssey site on Facebook.

Thanks to Alexander Kruel for bringing this one to my attention.

For a (possibly) even more epic effort along similar lines, see the zoomable phylomemetic tree here.

Fiona Jordan: Testing hypotheses about cultural evolution

A phylomemetics talk from phyloseminar.org.

Simon Greenhill: Language phylogenies and cultural evolution

A phylomemetics talk from phyloseminar.org.

Thomas Currie: Bobbins, borrowing, and bayesian inference

A phylomemetics talk from phyloseminar.org.

Phylomemetics of Christianity

Another visual representation of our theme here - a phylomemetic tree representing the evolution of Christianity:

Source: here. Note that there is a little bit of "webbing" in the "tree".

Dr. Mark Collard: Investigating the origin and evolution of culture with phylogenetic techniques

This is a phylomemetics presentation. It covers chimpanzee and human culture. It's 78 minutes long. It is a pretty good presentation on the topic. Mark is confident, articulate, and has chosen a fine topic to study.

For more from Mark (though without any memes), perhaps see: Darwin and Your Past.

Phylomemetics

Phylomemetics is the name for the study of the historical evolutionary relationships between groups of cultural entities. The results of phylomemetic studies are often expressed partly in the form of phylomemetic trees.

Phylomemetics is named by analogy with phylogenetics - which it closely resembles.

Phylomemetics typically suffers from more problems derived from horizontal gene transfer than phylogenetics does - but neat trees can nontheless frequently be constructed.

The image to the right shows the relationships between Indonesian folk songs.

Phylogenetic relationships are often promoted as being some of the best evidence for organic evolution. Similarly, phylomemetic analysis provides excellent evidence for cultural evolution. One area where evidence is abundant comes from the evidence supporting the so-called "tree model" of languages.

Phylomemetic relationships between languages were known back in the 1850s - before Darwin wrote The Origin. Darwin actually used the descent with modification of languages to explain his theory of organic evolution. Back then cultural evolution was more widely recognised as being correct than organic evolution was.

For a large and beautiful phylomemetic tree of Indonesian batik designs, see here.

Also, amateur trees of internet memes are now being constructed - e.g. see here.

References

• De Winter, Gunnar (2011) Studying Memes With Phylomemetics.
  
• Howe, C. J. and Windram, H. F. (2011) Phylomemetics – Evolutionary Analysis beyond the Gene. PLoS Biology. 9(5).
  
• Situngkir, Hokky, Khanafiah, Deni (2004) Innovation as Evolution: Case Study Phylomemetic of Cellphone Designs.
  
• Situngkir, Hokky, Khanafiah, Deni (2006) Visualizing the Phylomemetic Tree. Innovation as Evolutionary Process. Innovation in the Evolution of Technological Artifacts. Journal of Social Complexity, Vol.2, No.2, 2006, pp. 20-30.
  
• Situngkir, Hokky (2008) Constructing the Phylomemetic Tree: Indonesian Tradition-Inspired Buildings.
  
• Situngkir, Hokky (2008) Conjectures to the Memes of Indonesian Songs. Bandung Fe Institute; Indonesian Archipelago Cultural Initiatives (IACI). (BFI Working Paper Series WP-VI-2008).
  
• Situngkir, Hokky (2008) Evolutionary Clustering in Indonesian Ethnic Textile Motifs.
  
• Situngkir, Hokky (2009) The Phylomemetics of Batik.
  
• Eldredge, Niles and Barnet, Belinda (2004) Material Cultural Evolution: An Interview with Niles Eldredge.
  
• Eldredge, Niles and Ilya Temkin (2007) Phylogenetics and Material Cultural Evolution.
  
• Greenhill, S.J., Currie, T.E., & Gray, R.D. (2009) Does horizontal transmission invalidate cultural phylogenies? Proc. R. Soc. B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1944.
  
• Wintz (2010) Phylogenetics, cultural evolution and horizontal transmission.
  
• Lycett, S.J. (2009) Understanding Ancient Hominin Dispersals Using Artefactual Data: A Phylogeographic Analysis of Acheulean Handaxes. PLoS ONE 4(10): e7404. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007404.
  
• Mace, Ruth and Holden, Clare J. (2005) A phylogenetic approach to cultural evolution. TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution Vol.20 No.3 March 2005.