Abstract In most literature on human cultural evolution and the emergence of large-scale cooperation, main function conventions is described as providing group-markers. This paper argues that serve another purpose well at least important. Large-scale cooperation characterized by complex division labour a diversity social roles associated with institutions. requires ubiquitous ‘role-interaction ...

In many domains, a latent competition among different conventions determines which one will come to dominate. One sees such effects in the success of community jargon, of competing frames in political rhetoric, or of terminology in technical contexts. These effects have become widespread in the on-line domain, where the ease of information transmission makes them particularly forceful, and wher...