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Culture evolves only if there is cultural inheritance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2006

Robert Aunger*
Affiliation:
Hygiene Centre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, LondonWC1E 7HTwww.robertaunger.net
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Abstract:

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Mesoudi et al. argue that the current inability to identify the means by which cultural traits are acquired does not debilitate their project to draw clear parallels between cultural and biological evolution. However, I suggest that cultural phenomena may be accounted for by biological processes, unless we can identify a cultural “genotype” that carries information from person to person independently of genes.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006