Historical evolution and mathematical models: A sociocultural algorithm

Abstract

Though there are a lot of approaches to the problem of sociocultural evolution most of them are only one-sided, i.e., they deal only with either social or cultural processes. With few exceptions they are also only informal theories with no formal rigour. In this article we propose a theoretical model which considers both sides of the problem, that is the mutual interdependence of the evolution of social structures and of the culture of a society. A mathematical model, the sociocultural algorithm (SCA), based on these theoretical considerations maps several of the dynamic characteristics of sociocultural evolution, suggesting that universal principles underlie the dynamics of historical evolution.