Evolution and Culture Turf Wars: History, Mind, and/or Ecology?

• Published in: Journal of Anthropological Research Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 327 - 333
• Main Authors: Flinn, Mark, Tedeschi, David, Quinlan, Robert, Decker, Seamus, Picha, Paul R., Sutter, Richard, Turner, Mark
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Albuquerque, NM University of New Mexico 01-10-1994; University of New Mexico with the Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe
• Subjects: Cultural change; Culture; Darwinism; Ecology; Ethnology; Evolutionary psychology; Evolutionary Theories; Genetics; Human evolution; Human genetics; Psychology; Review Article; Sources and methods; Theoretical and systematic contributions; Environment; Genetics; Evolutionism; Psychology; Culture
• ISSN: 0091-7710; 2153-3806

A review essay on books by: William H. Durham, Coevolution: Genes, Culture, and Human Diversity (Stanford, CA: Stanford U Press, 1991); Jerome Barkow, Leda Cosmides, & John Tooby (Eds), The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture (Oxford, England: Oxford U Press, 1992); & Bruce Winterhalder & Eric Alden Smith (Eds), Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior (Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992 [see listings in IRPS No. 79]). Durham examines the independent functioning of & interconnections between cultural & genetic evolution. Five modes of gene-culture relations are discussed: (1) genetic mediation; (2) cultural mediation; (3) enhancement; (4) neutrality; & (5) opposition. Coevolutionary examples of the gene-culture typology are presented. The book does not resolve the interpretive/scientific schism & places too much emphasis on dual-inheritance typology & theory. The Barkow, Cosmides, & Tooby edition examines the evolutionary psychological mechanisms underlying human behavior & culture. Culture is not viewed as independent of genetics, but rather the manifestation of a human mental mechanism that has evolved since man's primordial past. Theoretical & empirical approaches, domain-specific cognitive processes & analysis of behavioral variation, to identify adaptive design, are discussed. Some assumptions of the book, eg, insistence that all psychological mechanisms are separate & distinct modules, are unwarranted. The Winterhalder & Smith volume analyzes the microenvironmental contexts of adaptive behavior with emphasis on applications of the optimality theory in anthropology. Environmental differences produce differential adaptive responses, which in turn result in cultural differences. Though the chapters in the book cover a wide range of topics, too much emphasis is given to optimal foraging. 20 References. D. Generoli