This volume tackles questions of cultural evolution empirically and quantitatively, using a range of case studies from Africa, the Pacific, Europe, Asia and America. Powerful theoretical tools developed in evolutionary biology are used to test detailed hypotheses about historical patterns and adaptive functions in cultural evolution.

Virtually all aspects of human behavior show enormous variation both within and between cultural groups, including material culture, social organization and language. Using a Darwinian approach, this book seeks to explain this rich cultural variation.