Abstract

The evolution of culture can be analysed within various theoretical frameworks, including selectionism, attractionism, diffusionism, functionalism, and neutral evolution. Nevertheless, an often overlooked but fundamental factor in all historical systems, including culture, is stability-based sorting (SBS). SBS is based on the assumption that, over time, the more stable or frequently recurring elements accumulate, while the less stable elements gradually disappear. This makes even natural selection a specific case of SBS. In biological evolution SBS accounts for several well-documented but enigmatic phenomena. In cultural evolution, where the variation-generating processes are more diverse and embedded in complex and dynamic contexts, SBS exerts a broader but more subtle influence. As a result, its effects in cultural evolution are less pervasive than in biology but nonetheless shape a wide range of non-obvious cultural patterns, such as the accumulation of safeguards against short-term advantageous changes that would undermine long-term stability (e.g., musical styles), the persistence of cultural elements that may be neutral or even disadvantageous in the short term but exhibit long-term stability (e.g., agriculture, writing, conservatism), and the punctuated nature of cultural evolution, alongside of instances of evolutionary stasis, modularisation, machinification, and increasing complexity. We can also extend SBS to interpretive and sign-based processes, underscoring how cultural elements stabilise through ongoing meaning-making. This highlights the often ‘invisible’ yet essential role of SBS in both micro- and macro-level cultural dynamics.