Roy Ellen is Professor of Anthropology and Human Ecology at the University of Kent, Canterbury. His recent publications include On the Edge of the Banda Zone (University of Hawaii Press, 2003), The Categorical Impulse: Essays on the Anthropology of Classifying Behavior (Berghahn Books, 2006), and Nuaulu Religious Practices: The Frequency and Reproduction of Rituals in a Moluccan Society (KITLV Press, 2012). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a member of its Council. He was President of the Royal Anthropological Institute between 2007 and 2011.

• List of FiguresList of TablesPrefaceList of ContributorsIntroductionRoy Ellen and Michael FischerChapter 1. What Animals Other Than Primates can tell us about Cultural TransmissionKevin Laland, Alice Cowie and Tom MorganChapter 2. Cultural Transmission in Non-human Primates: Definitions and EvidenceTatyana Humle and Nicholas Newton-FisherChapter 3. Cultural Transmission Theory and fossil Hominin Behaviour: A Discussion of Epistemological and Methodological StrengthsStephen Lycett Chapter 4. Studying Cultural Transmission Within an Interdisciplinary Cultural Evolutionary FrameworkAlex Mesoudi Chapter 5. Do Transmission Isolation Mechanisms (TRIMS) Influence Cultural Evolution? Evidence from Patterns of Textile Diversity Within and Between Iranian CulturalJamshid Tehrani and Mark CollardChapter 6. Co-evolution Between Bentwood Box Traditions and Languages on the Pacific Northwest CoastSean O'Neill Chapter 7. The Transmission of Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Skills Among Tsimane’ in the Bolivian AmazonViki Reyes-Garcia and TAPS Bolivian Study Team Chapter 8. Processual Perspectives on Traditional Knowledge: Continuity, Erosion, Transformation, InnovationStanford ZentChapter 9. The Transmission of Basketry-making Knowledge in East KalimantanRajindra Puri Chapter 10. On the Transmission of Gardening Knowledge: Innovation and Consensus in the Planting of Allotment VegetablesSimon PlattenChapter 11. Thinking Like a Cheese?: An Exploration of the Ecology of Knowledge in Artisan CheesemakingHarry West Chapter 12. Lineages of Cultural TransmissionStephen ShennanIndex

“This is an important contribution to the study of human knowledge and cultural transmission, and it squarely addresses contemporary concerns to cultivate a cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas and methods…The chapters are of high academic standard, well written and accessible to the interested reader who does not (and is unlikely to) possess expertise in each of the fields represented.”  ·  Trevor H.J. Marchand, SOAS, University of London“The editors have assembled an excellent slate of authors.”  ·  Mike O’Brien, University of Missouri