  The application of conventional phylogenetic techniques for inferring
cultural history is problematic due to differences in the nature of information
transmission in biological and cultural realms. In culture, units of
transmission are not just measurable attributes, but communicable concepts.
Therefore, relatedness amongst cultural elements often resides at the
conceptual level not captured by traditional phylogenetic methods. This paper
takes a cognitively inspired approach to analyzing material cultural history.
We show that combining data for physical attributes of cultural artifacts with
conceptual information can uncover cultural influences among different
ethnolinguistic groups, and reveal new patterns of cultural ancestry. Using the
Baltic psaltery, a musical instrument with a well-documented ethnographic and
archaeological record, we recovered a previously unacknowledged pattern of
historical relationship that is more congruent with geographical distribution
and temporal data than is obtained with other approaches.
