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Simulating Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds pp 311–334Cite as

Cultural and Genetic Transmission in the Jomon–Yayoi Transition Examined in an Agent-Based Demographic Simulation

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Part of the book series: Computational Social Sciences ((CSS))

Abstract

Agent-based simulation is used to obtain useful insights regarding genetic and cultural transmission in order to construct a model explaining the prehistoric demographic and cultural dynamics of the transition from the Jomon to Yayoi periods in western Japan. The Jomon–Yayoi transition is an East Asian case of hunter-gatherer to farmer transition in which drastic socio-cultural changes in subsistence, material culture, and settlement structure occurred. A simulation for 500 years shows that cultural skill can spread quickly without much loss in the case of biased transmission, even when the migration rate is very low, and that the spread of cultural skill without significant genetic influence is possible even when cultural transmission is restricted to between relatives. The result gives an inspiration for possible explanatory models of the Jomon–Yayoi transition in which indigenous people play more significant roles in areas remote from the locus of Yayoi cultural origin.

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Acknowledgments

We deeply appreciate many valuable suggestions from Joan Anton Barcelo and anonymous reviewers for improving this article. The research was funded by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) in 2008–2014 (Project Number 20320123), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Okayamaa University, Okayama, Japan

    Naoko Matsumoto

  2. Department of Computer Science, Okayamaa University, Okayama, Japan

    Mariko Sasakura

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  1. Naoko Matsumoto
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  2. Mariko Sasakura
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Correspondence to Naoko Matsumoto .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Juan A. Barceló

  2. Patagonia National Research Center (CENPAT) National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Puerto Madryn, Argentina

    Florencia Del Castillo

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Matsumoto, N., Sasakura, M. (2016). Cultural and Genetic Transmission in the Jomon–Yayoi Transition Examined in an Agent-Based Demographic Simulation. In: Barceló, J., Del Castillo, F. (eds) Simulating Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds. Computational Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31481-5_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31481-5_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31479-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31481-5

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