Posted by hawat.thufir on 09/18/05 18:13

anthonyberet wrote:
....
> It would be a survival feature if a plant or animal were to gain an
> advantage without expenditure of its own resources.
> However, it is unwise to try to apply natural selection to human society.

Evolution does apply to humans, though. I don't subscribe to "social
darwinism," which is what I assume you're referencing, but that doesn't
at all mean that evolution doesn't apply to humans, which includes
culture.

In the animal kingdom I can imagine two biologically "identical" groups
competing, with one surviving because of different learned behaviour,
which the other group, by chance, never learned. That's survival. Of
course, that example can't be extrapolated to draw the conclusion that
one group was superior, only that one behaviour was better for a
specific scenario. It's difficult to tease out cause and effect, I
imagine.

In that sense, sure, why not apply "evolution" to culture? Certainly,
cultures compete with each other.


-Thufir

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