CARTA: Culture-Gene Interactions in Human Origins: Peter Richerson - Culture-led Gene-culture Coevolution

In the classic nature-nurture dichotomy, nature has a stronger or weaker influence on nurture, but certainly nurture was supposed to have no impact on nature. Human culture is often taken to be a form of nurture. However, culture itself has evolutionary properties. In particular, culture generates novel environments that in turn select for novel genes. A few dramatic cases of this effect are well known and many more are suspected. Peter Richerson, UC Davis, explains why the nature-nurture dichotomy is an impediment to clear thinking and should be abandoned. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 24108]