ABSTRACT
According to the phylogenesis hypothesis, the similarities and differences among cultures are primarily the result of cultural assemblages dividing as the communities that produce them repeatedly split, grow and then split again. The strong version of the hypothesis suggests that 'Transmission Isolating Mechanisms' or 'TRIMS' (Durham 1992) impede the transmission of cultural elements among contemporaneous communities. TRIMS are akin to the barriers to hybridisation that separate species, and include language differences, ethnocentricism, and intercommunity violence (Durham 1992). The phylogenesis hypothesis predicts that the similarities and differences among cultures can be represented by a cladogram. The hypothesis also predicts that there will be a strong association between cultural variation and linguistic, morphological and genetic patterns (eg, Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza 1984; Cavalli-Sforza et al 1988, 1994; Kirch and Green 1987, 2001; Renfrew 1987; Sokal et al 1989, 1991; Bellwood 1995,1996b, 2001; Cavalli-Sforza and Cavalli-Sforza 1995; Chikhi et al 1998,2002; Diamond and Bellwood 2003).
