1 Human evolution involves a combination of
genetic and cultural change.
2 Genetic change brought about an extremely rapid
growth of the human brain, with a 3.2-fold increase in the volume
of the cerebral cortex alone from the time of Homo habilis 2
million years ago to the appearance of early Homo sapiens
about 500,000 years ago, accompanied by profound architectural
innovations in the larynx and speech centres of the brain. Cultural
change is much faster, but it is limited and directed by the
restricting properties of the brain and sensory apparatus.
3 The interaction of biological and cultural
evolution, remains largely unexplored. Human social behaviour is
transmitted through learning and culture.
4 The distinctive properties of cognition,
ranging from a sensory perception to memory and decision making,
have a powerful effect on culture.
5 Culture is determined ultimately by the mental
development of individual human beings. The properties of this
development can be characterized by regularities of development
rules that bias behaviour in a particular direction. For example,
human beings are highly audiovisual and depend very little on smell
and taste in comparison with the great majority of animal species.
This biological property redounds to a much richer vocabulary
describing hearing and vision than is the case for smell and
taste. In various languages around the world, about two-thirds
to three- fourths of all the words applying to the senses describe
hearing and vision, while one-tenth or fewer describe smell and
taste.
6 Genetic evolution thus affects cultural
evolution. Conversely, cultural evolution affects biological
evolution, by creating the environment in which the genes that
determine development epigenetic rules are selected through natural
selection. Genes and culture are in fact inseparably linked.
Changes in one inevitably force changes in the other, resulting in
what has come to be called gene-culture coevolution.
7 The process is believed to occur as
follows:
- The genes prescribe the biochemical processes of development by
which the individual mind is assembled.
- The mind grows by processes of mental development as the
growing individual assimilates aspects of the culture already in
existence. Culture is carried forward from generation to generation
the sum of past and present decisions and innovations of all
members of the society.
- Some individuals possess genes that enabling them to survive
and reproduce better in the contemporary culture than other
individuals. Survival is enhanced either by direct selection, of
descendants, or by supporting collateral kin in addition to direct
descendants.
- The more successful developmental processes spread through the
population, along with the genes that encode them. The population
evolves genetically with reference to the processes of
development.
8 Culture is created and shaped by
biological processes while the biological processes are
simultaneously altered in response to cultural change. However, the
rates at which the two forms of evolution occur and the tightness
of the linkages between them remain largely , unsolved
problems.