Mesoudi Alex, Whiten Andrew, Laland Kevin N
Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution. School of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JU, Scotland.
Evolution. 2004 Jan;58(1):1-11. doi: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2004.tb01568.x.
The claim that human culture evolves through the differential adoption of cultural variants, in a manner analogous to the evolution of biological species, has been greeted with much resistance and confusion. Here we demonstrate that as compelling a case can now be made that cultural evolution has key Darwinian properties, as Darwin himself presented for biological evolution in The Origin of Species. Culture is shown to exhibit variation, competition, inheritance, and the accumulation of successive cultural modifications over time. Adaptation, convergence, and the loss or change of function can also be identified in culture. Just as Darwin knew nothing of genes or particulate inheritance, a case for Darwinian cultural evolution can be made irrespective of whether unitary cultural replicators exist or whether cultural transmission mechanisms are well understood.
人类文化通过文化变体的差异采用而进化，其方式类似于生物物种的进化，这一观点遭到了诸多抵制和困惑。在此我们证明，如今可以有力地说明文化进化具有关键的达尔文式特性，就如同达尔文本人在《物种起源》中阐述的生物进化一样。文化展现出变异、竞争、传承以及随着时间推移连续文化变迁的积累。文化中也能识别出适应、趋同以及功能的丧失或改变。正如达尔文对基因或颗粒遗传一无所知一样，无论单一文化复制因子是否存在，也无论文化传播机制是否被充分理解，都可以构建出达尔文式文化进化的论据。
