On Modeling Evolution in Continuous Spaces

Mendelian genetics, with its model of particulate, discrete genes, has been a power tool of analysis, as well as an attractive one that has drawn many researchers in cultural evolution. Many forms of cultural evolution, however, involve continuous variation over a space that is not easily quantized. In this paper, we look at continuous variation directly, not through the lens of particulate encodings, but rather from the perspective of mechanisms that generate continuous behavior (or phenotype). We study the degree to which we can come to understand cultural evolution in continuous space directly. We propose a spatial or landscape representation framework for evolution in continuous space of clustered behavior. The paper then presents four models of how clustered behavior patterns may evolve on their landscapes, including drift, selection, separation, and merging. These may be seen as building blocks for a comprehensive program of modeling cultural evolution.