Cultural Evolution

Paul Ehrlich makes some obser­va­tions on the daunt­ing task of build­ing a com­pre­hen­sive the­ory of cul­tural change. He dis­misses Richard Dawkins’ brave but flawed con­jec­ture about “memes” (gene analogs of cul­tural inher­i­tance), but does sup­port the con­tentious notion that nat­ural selec­tion can oper­ate in cul­tural evo­lu­tion as well as in genetic evo­lu­tion, although not likely as a cen­tral force. He paints a daunt­ing but hope­ful and cer­tainly vital under­tak­ing. “…since every­thing from weapons of mass destruc­tion to global heat­ing are the results of changes in human cul­ture over time, acquir­ing a fun­da­men­tal under­stand­ing of cul­tural evo­lu­tion just might be the key to sav­ing civ­i­liza­tion from itself.”