"one of the most significant papers to be written in anthropology in the last 20 years" - Nina Jablonski, chair of the Anthropology Department at Pennsylvania State University
quote:
The process of natural selection can act on human culture as well as on genes, a new study finds. Scientists at Stanford University have shown for the first time that cultural traits affecting survival and reproduction evolve at a different rate than other cultural attributes. Speeded or slowed rates of evolution typically indicate the action of natural selection in analyses of the human genome.
Article can be found
here, the original release can be found
here. The interesting part isn't just the study, but the implications of the field as described by one of its authors:
Paul R. Ehrlich, Center for Conservation Biology, Department of Biology writes:
What we don't know, and need to learn, is how cultures change and how we can ethically influence that process
And
Deborah S. Rogers, a research fellow at Stanford writes:
everything from the economic incentives, industrial technologies and growth mentality that cause climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity, to the religious polarization and political ideologies that generate devastating conflict around the globe...If the leadership necessary to undertake critically needed cultural evolution in these areas can't be found, our civilization may find itself weeded out by natural selection, just like a bad canoe design
The paper is not going to appear until Feb. 19.
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