The analogy of genetic and cultural evolution.

Boyd and Richerson argued that Darwin’s model of genetic evolution is also appropriate for an analysis of cultural and language evolution. They argued that Darwin’s (1859) conditions considered necessary for genetic adaptation by natural selection are also present in cultural evolution. Darwin contended that natural selection requires a struggle for existence, and heritable variations in the population so some individuals gain a selective advantage over others of the species. Boyd and Richerson noted that these conditions are met in any reproducing entity whether genetic or cultural. The rapid cultural adaptation in human cultural groups is stabilized by socio-cultural forces (especially conformity) and produces stable differences between cultural groups that are heritable at the group level. Adaptation continues at the group level as long as cultural groups compete so the cultural traits of successful groups will spread to the less successful.

Similar to genes, cultural traits are units of transmission that are stabilized in societies over long periods. Some religious beliefs have an origin going back over millennia and have evolved like other cultural traits to present day practices in thousands of religious groups. Cultural traits including religious beliefs are modifiable like genes in response to the forces of selective adaptation. For example burning witches at the stake did not prove adaptable for the Catholic religion, and probably mass murder will not survive as an adaptable cultural trait for other dogmatic and fundamentalist groups.

However, other cultural inventions may spread quickly and horizontally through societies, especially in the new age of technology and the information revolution. Further, Mesoudi and O’Brien (2009) have argued that the distinction between genetic inheritance and cultural traits is a false dichotomy. All human behavior is biologically based and it is not possible to divide genetic and cultural determinants into separate domains. For example, language acquisition requires learning, but also the underlying biological based mental abilities that evolved from the interaction of the hardwired genetic inheritance with the environment (Nettle, 2006; O’Brien, Lyman, Mesoudi, & VanPool, 2010).

Cultural traits are analogous to genes since both serve as units of replication that can be modified by association with other cultural traits, by memory loss, or by selective personal experiences. Cultural traits like genes are replicated by humans as part of the child rearing process, and are transmitted by spoken language or imitation. O’Brien et al point out that no one has seen genes or cultural traits, but we know the latter exist through the study of artifacts and the archeological record. An evolutionary framework for understanding the development of cultural traits have been proposed also by others including VanPool and VanPool (2003) and Mesoudi and O’Brien (2009). The analogy between genetic and cultural evolution has been employed recently in explaining the heterogeneity in the rates of evolution for different linguistic traits (Pagel & Meade, 2004). One of the insights produced by evolutionary analogies is that societies that share common cultural histories may also inherit similar social structures, a contention supported by recent research (Guglielmino, Viganotti, Hewlett, & Cavalli-Sforza, 1995).

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 745