Enquist & Ghirlanda (2007) Social learning and cumulative culture

Enquist, M., & Ghirlanda, S. (2007). Evolution of social learning does not explain the origin of human cumulative culture. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 246, 129-135. 

A mathematical model, assumes (a) loss of culture, (b) innovations becoming maladaptive over time.

Results: 

--Cultural can be adaptive in the long run, but the conditions are pretty restricted. The main reason is that the average time a trait exists as adaptive is smaller than the average lifetime of a maladaptive trait.

A solution: “Adaptive filtering”

--Each generation discards some maladaptive culture each generation.

--This allows culture to be adaptive.

--Adaptive filtering allows cultural evolution to preferentially accumulate traits that stay adaptive despite environmental changes.