讲座信息

主题：The Cultural Evolution of Games of Chance – a historical investigation of Chinese gambling

时间：4月14日（周五）13:30-15:30

地点：浙江大学紫金港西区成均苑8幢1127

概要：Chance-based gambling has been a recurrent cultural activity throughout history and across many diverse human societies. In this talk, I combine quantitative and qualitative data and present a cultural evolutionary framework to explain why the odds of games of chance in premodern China appeared meticulously crafted to ensure a house edge. This is especially intriguing since extensive research in the history of probability has shown that prior to the development of probability theory (which was itself inspired by games of chance) people had very limited understanding of the nature of random events, and were generally disinclined to think mathematically about the frequency of their occurrence. I argue that games of chance in the context of gambling culturally evolved into their documented forms via a process of selective imitation and retention, and neither the customers nor the gambling houses understood the probability calculus involved in these games.

主讲人：洪  泽

哈佛大学人类进化生物学博士，现任浙江大学社会学系“新百人计划研究员（第二类）”，哈佛大学人类进化生物学系兼职研究助理，Human Nature编委。研究方向为人类文化，行为和心理机制的生物学基础，人类群体动态的数学模型，以及从认知的角度解读人类社会中的无效技术行为（如巫术和占卜）。相关论文和学术写作发表在人类学，认知科学的龙头期刊 Current Anthropology, American Anthropologist, Cognitive Science, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 等。

评议人：Jan Harm Schutte

芝加哥大学人类学博士，现任浙江大学社会学系“新百人计划研究员（第二类）”。研究兴趣包括人类学、语言人类学和传播学。出版专著Angloscene: Compromised Personhood in Afro-Chinese Translations(University of California Press, Spring 2023)。

主持人：刘  珍

布朗大学社会学博士，现任浙江大学社会学系“百人计划B”研究员。研究领域主要包括国际移民，人口流动与城市化，教育与健康不平等研究。研究成果发表在The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science，International Handbook of Migration and Population Distribution，Landscape and Urban Planning 等期刊上。