Monday, January 12, 2015
How Culture Has Shaped Human Evolution
http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2011/11/human-evolution.aspx
The article above gives reasoning and evidence for how human culture and/or society has shaped the evolution of our species. The author organizes his evidence into three main points:
1)Culture, cultural transmission, and cultural evolution come from genetically evolved psychological adaptations in humans to acquire information/skills from observation and inference
2)These adaptations allow for a second system of inheritance in humans(and other highly intelligent organisms) that operates by different rules than those observed by genetic inheritence.
3)Inherited information/practices can affect the processes of natural selection and other forms of evolution(Ex. Domestication of cows led to lactase persistence being selected for in certain human societies)
This relates to our current unit as it shows how human society and artificial selection can influence the evolution of our species.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Is is possible to see this sort of selection based off of culture in animals as well? Based on patterns and their way of life, have certain species branched off in the same way humans have?
ReplyDeleteNow that the world's cultures are becoming more connected/globalized, how do you think evolutionary patterns will differ from the past system of separate cultures?
ReplyDeleteWill, yes. These psychological adaptations arose from physical ones. For example, cows are milked because of the physical human adaption of lactase persistence. Mutations such as these arise randomly in populations or are introduced by population mixing, with increased globalization population mixing will become more prominent and specific adaptions such as lactase persistence will spread across populations. This will allow for group that were previously unable to drink milk to do so, and then the cultural behavior of milking cows will also spread.
ReplyDeletePooji, yes and no. The answer depends on your definition of animal culture. For example, chimps have been found to use sticks as tools. Although this could be sen as one particular aspect of "chimp culture", since it is a skill that is past on through generations. However, the use of sticks as tools occurs in chimps all around the world and is therefore not a specific aspect of distinctive culture, but a species wide psychological phenomenon.
ReplyDelete