The aim of the conference is to demonstrate the usefulness and
explanatory power of spatially explicit models of cultural evolution. By
cultural evolution we mean the dynamics of change in frequencies of
alternative languages, social systems, settlements, material cultural
traditions, and their various constituent elements. Spatial explicitness
may be conceived in terms of aggregations and their distribution, of
mobility and interaction patterns, or of the effects of spatial
environmental heterogeneity.
We are looking for situations where mathematical models can be
demonstrated both to be theoretically tractable, and to have substantial
explanatory power in a detailed analysis of a case study. The focus of
papers should be on demonstrating firstly the applicability of the model
and secondly (most importantly) what we can learn from such models that
we did not know before.
Spatial dependence may be represented in models as effects of distance
and/or environmental heterogeneity on movement or interaction rates, or
on interaction modality (e.g. co-operative versus hostile; trade-based
versus diplomacy-based; etc.). We are particularly interested in models
that explore the spatiotemporal evolution of bounded social units
(defined by language or polity), and their size distribution on a
multi-unit landscape.
Papers are also invited that apply novel statistical techniques to
address inverse problems. We are interested in inverse models that
estimate model parameters from empirical data, particularly where these
relate to the historical evolution of spatially-structured populations,
their cultural repertoires, and their aggregation patterns.
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