Cultural Hitchhiking in the Context of the First Agricultural Groups of South-Western Europe: A Simulation Study

  1. Pardo-Gordó, Salvador 1
  1. 1 Universidad de La Laguna
    info

    Universidad de La Laguna

    San Cristobal de La Laguna, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01r9z8p25

Llibre:
Simulating Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory
  1. Salvador Pardo-Gordó (ed. lit.)
  2. Sean Bergin (ed. lit.)

ISSN: 2509-9574

ISBN: 978-3-030-83642-9

Any de publicació: 2021

Pàgines: 105-124

Tipus: Capítol de llibre

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-83643-6_6 GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible

Resum

The purpose of this work is to explore hitchhiking as the main process responsible for the diversity of cultural items in the Western Mediterranean in the context of the spread of agriculture during the Neolithic (8000 to 7200 cal BP). The use of hitchhiking in a cultural context is defined as the transmission of neutral traits (e.g. linguistics) with variants that offer some advantage (i.e. political systems). In this research, a cellular automaton model is applied. Its purpose is to simulate the dispersal of the Neolithic and its cultural consequences based on the selection of cultural traits via hitchhiking phenomenon. The results of this work suggest that markers of cultural hitchhiking can be identified during the early Neolithic in the Western Mediterranean.