Behavioral and Brain Sciences



Open Peer Commentary

Cultural evolution is not equivalent to Darwinian evolution


Dwight W. Read a1
a1 Department of Anthropology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095. dread@anthro.ucla.edu http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/read/

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Abstract

Darwinian evolution, defined as evolution arising from selection based directly on the properties of individuals, does not account for cultural constructs providing the organizational basis of human societies. The difficulty with linking Darwinian evolution to structural properties of cultural constructs is exemplified with kinship terminologies, a cultural construct that structures and delineates the domain of kin in human societies.

(Published Online November 9 2006)