Multiple local optima alone cannot explain persistent rejection of superior practices

Evidence

It seems likely that people in coastal New Guinea have had plenty of contact and have observed others using fletching for centuries. Arrow fletching is clearly a superior method of crafting arrows and should increase hunting and fighting efficiency, yet it has not spread to New Guinea. It is hard to see why this practice cannot be adopted in a number of small, adaptive steps, each an improvement over the previous step. Research seeking to show that multiple local optima alone can account for similarities within cultures and the differences between them must explain why groups reject more effective alternatives to widely used behaviors. — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 116

Categorization

• SEED: The coastal New Guinea rejection of arrow fletching is a vivid case study of why functional superiority fails to explain cultural diffusion — an essay angle on why groups refuse clearly better practices.
• XREF: connects to: Local-optima logic fails where a stepwise-improvement pathway exists between variants — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 115; Cultural adaptation is path-dependent and condemned to local optima — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 113; Cultural accumulation locks groups into local optima because traits are integrated

Broader Connections

• Local-optima logic fails where a stepwise-improvement pathway exists between variants #expands (0.88) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 115
• Cultural adaptation is path-dependent and condemned to local optima #complicates (0.75) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 113
• Cultural accumulation locks groups into local optima because traits are integrated #complicates (0.72)