Welcome to the excd.lab!
The excd.lab investigates how the startling (yet not infinite!) variety in human culture has evolved. Led by Professor Fiona Jordan and based at the University of Bristol Department of Anthropology & Archaeology, we are interdisciplinary researchers and bring together methods and ideas from across anthropology, biology, and the cognitive and language sciences. Much of the work in the group uses computational evolutionary methods, particularly phylogenetics, but we also use experimental, field, linguistic, and elicitation approaches.
Our current research projects include:
- VARIKIN: the cultural evolution of kinship diversity
- Cultural uses of plants: Nordic People & Plants, and emerging projects on houseplants and allotments
- QUANTA: The Evolution of Cognitive Tools for Quantification
Other recently-finished projects have included:
- Transmission: accent prestige and the cultural transmission of narratives
- CHIELD: Understanding theories of language evolution
For more details, see our research, people, and publication pages.
Why “excd.lab”?
Because we EXplore Cultural Diversity and we use Evolutionary and Cross (X) – Cultural methoDs. It’s pronounced “exceed”.
