Abstract
Aspects of cultural transmission in humans are reviewed with special reference to evidence for and against vertical (parent-to-child) and non-vertical transmission. Henrich's (2001) model of biased horizontal transmission may satisfactorily account for the S-shaped adoption curves (e.g., for the spread of hybrid seed corn). The demic expansion hypothesis for the spread of early farming in Europe (Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza, 1971, 1973) is reevaluated in the light of new theoretical results (Aoki et al., 1996). Hewlett et al.'s (2002) test of the demic expansion, acculturation, and cultural-materialistic hypotheses on 36 African ethnic groups is described.
