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Updated: Mar 23, 2026

Automatic Image Processing to Determine the Community Size Structure of Riverine Macroinvertebrates

Automatic Image Processing to Determine the Community Size Structure of Riverine Macroinvertebrates

Published on: January 13, 2023

Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity.

Krist Vaesen¹, Mark Collard², Richard Cosgrove³

¹School of Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5612 AZ Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Human Origins Group, Faculty of Archaeology, University of Leiden, 2333 CC Leiden, The Netherlands; k.vaesen@tue.nl.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|April 5, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Population size is often cited as key to cultural complexity, but this study finds demographic models fail under realistic conditions. New research is needed to understand the true drivers of cultural change in the archaeological record.

Keywords:

Tasmania Upper Paleolithic transition cultural complexity cultural evolution demography

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Area of Science:

Archaeology
Anthropology
Computational Social Science

Background:

Demographic explanations are increasingly used for archaeological findings like technological conservatism and cultural loss.
Models by Henrich and Powell et al. suggest population size dictates cultural complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

To critically evaluate the validity of current population dynamic models in explaining cultural complexity.
To demonstrate the limitations of existing demographic models in archaeology.

Main Methods:

Analysis of theoretical population dynamic models.
Comparison of model predictions with archaeological and ethnographic data.

Main Results:

Existing models only support a link between demography and culture under implausible conditions.
Model predictions contradict available archaeological and ethnographic evidence.

Conclusions:

Current demographic models are inadequate for explaining cultural complexity in the archaeological record.
Further theoretical and empirical research is necessary to identify factors driving cultural change.