According to a new American study, culture allows humans to adapt to their environment and overcome difficulties better and faster than genetics.
- If human behaviors can also be dictated by genes, culture is becoming more and more predominant to explain their evolution.
- This is explained by a faster and more flexible transmission of knowledge by experience than by genes.
- The culture of the group also influences human behavior: collaboration, cooperation and social learning are not due to genes, but to the culture, which is transmitted by the group.
In terms of human evolution, is the acquired stronger than the innate? While researchers have long debated whether human behavior is determined by genetics or acquired experience, a new study comes to close the debate once and for all.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the flagship journal of biological research of the Royal Society of London, researchers from the University of Maine (USA) explain that culture (i.e. the knowledge, practices and skills acquired) goes beyond the value of genes in helping humans adapt to their environment and overcome any difficulties they may encounter. They call it a “special evolutionary transition.”
Learning faster than genes
In their work, scientists Tim Waring and Zach Wood explain that culture has long been an underestimated factor in human evolution. This is notably due to the work of Charles Darwin – and more recently of the ethologist Konrad Lorenz – who, at the beginning of the 20th century, studied animals living in their natural environment. Seeing them evolve without interfering with their environment, he concluded that animals “knew” instinctively to reproduce complex tasks. This is the case, for example, of birds building their nests, beavers building dams or wolves hunting in packs.
For these scientists, culture, education and personal experience were less important than innate behaviors, which depend on the genetic makeup of the species. This new study says otherwise. According to its authors, culture helps people adapt to their environment and meet the challenges of survival and reproduction more effectively than genes. And for good reason: the transfer of knowledge is faster and more flexible than that of genes.
“Culture is a more powerful coping mechanism for several reasons, explains Professor Waring. It is faster: gene transfer only occurs once per generation, while cultural practices can be learned quickly and frequently Culture is also more flexible than genes: gene transfer is rigid and limited to genetic information from two parents, while cultural transmission relies on flexible and effectively unlimited human learning, with the possibility of ‘use information from peers and experts far beyond parents. Therefore, cultural evolution is a stronger type of adaptation than ancient genetics.’
Humans that are more and more cultural and less and less genetic
According to the two authors, humans are a “unique species” because they evolve “both genetically and culturally”. But, over time, “we become more and more cultural and less and less genetic”.
So, if the combination of culture and genes drives several key adaptations in humans, such as reduced aggression, cooperative tendencies, collaborative skills, and social learning ability, human adaptations are increasingly guided by culture, even if they require the intervention of genes.
As proof, the human evolutions centered on the group. Factors such as conformity, social identity, and shared norms and institutions are cultural, not genetic. Therefore, competition among culturally organized groups promotes adaptations such as new norms of cooperation and social systems that help groups survive better together.
“In the very long term, we suggest that humans evolve from individual genetic organisms into cultural groups that function as superorganisms, similar to ant colonies and beehives,” Prof. Waring says. The metaphor of “society as an organism” is ultimately not so metaphorical as that. This finding can help society better understand how individuals can fit into a well-organized and mutually beneficial system.”
goes beyond the value of genes in helping humans adapt to their environment and overcome any difficulties they might encounter
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