68 research outputs found
Cultural transmission modes of music sampling traditions remain stable despite delocalization in the digital age
Music sampling is a common practice among hip-hop and electronic producers
that has played a critical role in the development of particular subgenres.
Artists preferentially sample drum breaks, and previous studies have suggested
that these may be culturally transmitted. With the advent of digital sampling
technologies and social media the modes of cultural transmission may have
shifted, and music communities may have become decoupled from geography. The
aim of the current study was to determine whether drum breaks are culturally
transmitted through musical collaboration networks, and to identify the factors
driving the evolution of these networks. Using network-based diffusion analysis
we found strong evidence for the cultural transmission of drum breaks via
collaboration between artists, and identified several demographic variables
that bias transmission. Additionally, using network evolution methods we found
evidence that the structure of the collaboration network is no longer biased by
geographic proximity after the year 2000, and that gender disparity has relaxed
over the same period. Despite the delocalization of communities by the
internet, collaboration remains a key transmission mode of music sampling
traditions. The results of this study provide valuable insight into how
demographic biases shape cultural transmission in complex networks, and how the
evolution of these networks has shifted in the digital age
Cultural transmission modes of music sampling traditions remain stable despite delocalization in the digital age
Music sampling is a common practice among hip-hop and electronic producers that has played a critical role in the development of particular subgenres. Artists preferentially sample drum breaks, and previous studies have suggested that these may be culturally transmitted. With the advent of digital sampling technologies and social media the modes of cultural transmission may have shifted, and music communities may have become decoupled from geography. The aim of the current study was to determine whether drum breaks are culturally transmitted through musical collaboration networks, and to identify the factors driving the evolution of these networks. Using network-based diffusion analysis we found strong evidence for the cultural transmission of drum breaks via collaboration between artists, and identified several demographic variables that bias transmission. Additionally, using network evolution methods we found evidence that the structure of the collaboration network is no longer biased by geographic proximity after the year 2000, and that gender disparity has relaxed over the same period. Despite the delocalization of communities by the internet, collaboration remains a key transmission mode of music sampling traditions. The results of this study provide valuable insight into how demographic biases shape cultural transmission in complex networks, and how the evolution of these networks has shifted in the digital age
From Psychology to Phylogeny: Bridging Levels of Analysis in Cultural Evolution
Cultural evolution, or change in the socially learned behavior of a population over time, is a fascinating phenomenon that is widespread in humans and present in some non-human animals. In this dissertation, I present an array of cultural evolutionary studies that bridge pattern and process in a wide range of research models including music, extremism, and birdsong. The first chapter is an introduction to the field of cultural evolution, including a bibliometric analysis of its structure. The second and third chapters are studies on the cultural dynamics of music sampling traditions in hip-hop and electronic music communities and far-right extremism in the United States, using social network analysis and epidemiological modeling, respectively. The fourth and fifth chapters are studies on how cultural transmission biases influence population-level changes in music sampling traditions and house finch song, using a combination of agent-based modeling and machine learning. The sixth chapter is a technical report on computerized birdfeeders that were used to remotely collect data on the social network structure of a wild house finch population. Lastly, the seventh chapter applies a novel phylogenetic method based on dynamic community detection to reconstruct the cultural evolution of electronic music
Statistical signals of copying are robust to time- and space-averaging
Cattle brands (ownership marks left on animals) are subject to forces influencing other graphic codes: the copying of constituent parts, pressure for distinctiveness, and pressure for complexity. The historical record of cattle brands in some US states is complete due to legal registration, providing a unique opportunity to assess how sampling processes leading to time- and space-averaging influence our ability to make inferences from limited datasets in fields like archaeology. In this preregistered study, we used a dataset of ~81,000 Kansas cattle brands (1990-2016) to explore two questions: (1) the relative influence of copying, pressure for distinctiveness, and pressure for complexity on the creation and diffusion of brand components, and (2) the effects of time- and space- averaging on statistical signals. By conducting generative inference with an agent-based model, we found that the patterns in our data are consistent with copying and pressure for intermediate complexity. In addition, by comparing mixed and structured datasets, we found that these statistical signals of copying are robust to, and possibly boosted by, time- and space-averaging
Constraining the Physical Properties of Stellar Coronal Mass Ejections with Coronal Dimming: Application to Far Ultraviolet Data of Eridani
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are a prominent contributor to solar system
space weather and might have impacted the Sun's early angular momentum
evolution. A signal diagnostic of CMEs on the Sun is coronal dimming: a drop in
coronal emission, tied to the mass of the CME, that is the direct result of
removing emitting plasma from the corona. We present the results of a coronal
dimming analysis of Fe XII 1349 A and Fe XXI 1354 A emission from
Eridani ( Eri), a young K2 dwarf, with archival far-ultraviolet
observations by the Hubble Space Telescope's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
Following a flare in February 2015, Eri's Fe XXI emission declined
by %. Although enticing, a scant 3.8 min of preflare observations
allows for the possibility that the Fe XXI decline was the decay of an earlier,
unseen flare. Dimming nondetections following each of three prominent flares
constrain the possible mass of ejected Fe XII-emitting (1 MK) plasma to less
than a few g. This implies that CMEs ejecting this much or more
1 MK plasma occur less than a few times per day on Eri. On the Sun,
g CMEs occur once every few days. For Eri, the mass loss
rate due to CME-ejected 1 MK plasma could be , well below
the star's estimated 30 mass loss rate (wind + CMEs). The
order-of-magnitude formalism we developed for these mass estimates can be
broadly applied to coronal dimming observations of any star.Comment: 27 pages, 22 figures, accepted to Ap
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