Year: 2022

EVOLUTION OF CULTURE. “A common question is whether culture really evolves. This question comes from both social scientists skeptical of any kind of parallel with evolution, and biologists insistent that Darwin’s theory applies only to genetic evolution. Importantly, no one argues that genetic evolution and cultural evolution operate identically.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

TRANSMISSION. “From the outset, microevolutionary modelers incorporated processes unique to cultural change, such as one-to-many transmission or nonrandomly guided variation.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

A DEFINITION. “At its heart, cultural change is a process of inherited variation that changes due to selection, drift, migration, and other processes, which, in their details, may operate similar to or different from the genetic case.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

INTERACTING SYSTEMS. “Gene–culture coevolution models and data have examined how cultural evolution interacts with and affects genetic evolution. There is extensive evidence for culture-driven genetic change in humans, including agriculture-induced genetic adaptations for digesting starch, dairy products, and alcohol.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

CULTURE EXTENDS GENETIC EVOLUTION. “This research shows the extent to which culture extends genetic evolution by independently tracking environmental change that is too rapid for genes to track, by generating diverse cultural adaptations to those environmental challenges, and by driving genetic evolution.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

CUMULATIVE EFFECT. “Although chimpanzees’ nut-cracking or dolphins’ use of protective nose-sponges does not seem to exceed what a lone chimpanzee or dolphin could invent alone, it is surely impossible for a single human to have discovered quantum mechanics, invented smartphones, visited the moon, or achieved any of the other feats that require standing on the shoulders of previous generations.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

FITNESS INCREASE. “Models of the evolution of culture show that cumulative culture is particularly effective at increasing mean population fitness beyond the population fitness of noncumulative cultural species.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

CUMULATIVE OR EVOLVING? “Is “cumulative culture” synonymous with “cultural evolution”? In principle, evolutionary change can be noncumulative, involving changes in trait frequencies over time such as occurs with genetic drift or local adaptive changes in gene frequencies. In this sense, nonhuman, noncumulative cultural change can justifiably be called cultural evolution.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

ACCUMULATION. “However, genetic evolution is clearly also cumulative, involving the gradual accumulation of beneficial genetic modifications over time to produce complex adaptations, such as eyes or wings. Human cumulative cultural evolution bears a clear parallel with this form of cumulative genetic evolution. Indeed, the gradual accumulation of cultural innovations results in complex cultural adaptations, such as telescopes or airplanes, that resemble and rival complex genetic adaptations.” http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7853.full View in LinkedIn

CULTURAL EVOLUTION of complexity that comes anywhere close to the extraordinary biological complexity we see in nature might include advanced mathematics, scientific enquiry, some music, writing and language, and the internet. But in truth, none of these compares to layered sophistication of the merest bristle on the nose of a flea. These types of complexity are not comparable, they are simply very different. Complexity should not even be in the formula. View in LinkedIn