Cinderella’s Family Tree. A Phylomemetic Case Study of ATU 510/511 (2023)
Journal Article
Sakamoto Martini, G., Kendal, J., & Tehrani, J. J. (2023). Cinderella’s Family Tree. A Phylomemetic Case Study of ATU 510/511. Fabula: Journal of Folktale Studies, 64(1-2), 7-30. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabula-2023-0002

This case study contributes to recent attempts to apply “phylomemetic” methods derived from computational biology to oral traditions, where the aim is to trace the mutation and diversification of folk narratives as they get passed on from generation... Read More about Cinderella’s Family Tree. A Phylomemetic Case Study of ATU 510/511.

Does Group Contact Shape Styles of Pictorial Representation? A Case Study of Australian Rock Art (2022)
Journal Article
Granito, C., Tehrani, J., Kendal, J., & Scott-Phillips, T. (2022). Does Group Contact Shape Styles of Pictorial Representation? A Case Study of Australian Rock Art. Human Nature, 33(3), 237-260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-022-09430-2

Image-making is a nearly universal human behavior, yet the visual strategies and conventions to represent things in pictures vary greatly over time and space. In particular, pictorial styles can differ in their degree of figurativeness, varying from... Read More about Does Group Contact Shape Styles of Pictorial Representation? A Case Study of Australian Rock Art.

Unknotting the interactive effects of learning processes on cultural evolutionary dynamics (2019)
Journal Article
Scanlon, L., Lobb, A., Tehrani, J. J., & Kendal, J. R. (2019). Unknotting the interactive effects of learning processes on cultural evolutionary dynamics. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 1, Article e17. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2019.17

Forms of non-random copying error provide sources of inherited variation yet their effects on cultural evolutionary dynamics are poorly understood. Focusing on variation in granny and reef knot forms, we present a mathematical model that specifies ho... Read More about Unknotting the interactive effects of learning processes on cultural evolutionary dynamics.

Style of pictorial representation is shaped by intergroup contact (2019)
Journal Article
Granito, C., Tehrani, J., Kendal, J., & Scott-Phillips, T. (2019). Style of pictorial representation is shaped by intergroup contact. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 1, Article e8. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2019.8

Pictorial representation is a key human behaviour. Cultures around the world have made images to convey information about living kinds, objects and ideas for at least 75,000 years, in forms as diverse as cave paintings, religious icons and emojis. Ho... Read More about Style of pictorial representation is shaped by intergroup contact.

Cultural complexity and demography: The case of folktales (2017)
Journal Article
Acerbi, A., Kendal, J., & Tehrani, J. (2017). Cultural complexity and demography: The case of folktales. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38(4), 474-480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.03.005

We investigate the relationship between cultural complexity and population size in a non-technological cultural domain for which we have suitable quantitative records: folktales. We define three levels of complexity for folk narratives: the number of... Read More about Cultural complexity and demography: The case of folktales.

Human Niche Construction in Interdisciplinary Focus (2011)
Journal Article
Kendal, J., Tehrani, J., & Odling-Smee, J. (2011). Human Niche Construction in Interdisciplinary Focus. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1566), 785-792. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0306

Niche construction is an endogenous causal process in evolution, reciprocal to the causal process of natural selection. It works by adding ecological inheritance, comprising the inheritance of natural selection pressures previously modified by niche... Read More about Human Niche Construction in Interdisciplinary Focus.