They call it ‘the forbidden experiment’. It would be a matter of verifying, in a controlled environment, how a human offspring responds to cultural stimuli (or the lack of them, being deprived of its freedom or the affection of its relatives); This cruel scenario, of course, is unimaginable and can never be purposely used to study the true effects of culture on the modeling of the brain. With the exception, unfortunately, of some abused children who suffered this isolation on the part of their parents. Genie, nicknamed the wild girl, was one of them.
Locked up in a room since she was a baby and tied to the bed, receiving little information from the outside, malnourished, without language and without affection, she was rescued at the age of 13. But it was too late. Already in these terrible cases – studied by educators and speech therapists – the tremendous delay in language and cognition was evident.The hostile environment to which Genie had been subjected had deprived her of normal development, practically impossible to recover, despite the fact that Genie did not suffer from any type of brain dysfunction.
The classic debate betweenwhat more defines our behaviors and choices, if the environment or innate traits,It has turned scientists and psychologists on their heads for decades. From the type of toys that children choose for fun (typically girls, dolls, houses and symbolic games; mechanics, logical mathematical abstractions for children) to the career that young adults choose (with a greater predominance of humanities, social sciences and science of women’s health); there is much that we could learn, in the case of elucidating in what percentage each variable is determining.
To the point of the question. In a new study, a group of researchers at the University of Maine has come to a rigorous conclusion about this conundrum. According to their results,it is culture that primarily helps humans adapt to their environment and overcome challenges, better and faster than genetics.
The reason? It seems that the human being is a creature that evolves transcending the merely animal. But this should not surprise us.
‘Culture as an underestimated factor in human evolution’
After conducting an extensive review of the scientific literature and previous evidence on long-term human evolution, scientists Tim Waring and Zach Wood concluded that humans are undergoing a ‘special evolutionary transition’ in which the importance of culture, as the knowledge, practices and skills acquired, it is exceeding the value of genes as the main engine of human evolution.
In the words of Waring himself, collected in a statement issued by the University itself: “Culture is an underestimated factor in human evolution. Like genes, the education learned helps people to adapt to their environment and to face the challenges of survival and reproduction ”.
“Culture, however, does this more efficiently than genes because knowledge transfer is faster and more flexible than inheritance of genes,” the lead researchers conclude.
Why could culture be stronger than genetics?
“Culture is a stronger adaptive mechanism for a couple of reasons,” according to Waring: “It’s faster: gene transfer occurs only once per generation, while cultural practices can be quickly learned and frequently updated. ”.
More arguments: “Culture is also more flexible than genes: gene transfer is rigid and limited to the genetic information of two parents, while cultural transmission is based on flexible and effectively unlimited human learning with the ability to make use of information from peers and experts far beyond parents ”.
“As a result, cultural evolution is a stronger type of adaptation than ancient genetics,” they say.
This research would also explain why humans are a unique species. “We evolve both genetically and culturally over time, but little by little we are becoming more and more cultural and less genetic, ” Waring explains.
The combination of genes and culture would be the key to the latest human adaptations
Culture has influenced the way humans survive and evolve for millennia. According to Waring and Wood, the combination of culture and genes has driven several key adaptations in humans, including reduced aggressiveness, inclinations for cooperation, collaborative skills, and the ability to socially learn. Increasingly, the researchers suggest, human adaptations are driven by culture.
With culture fueling human evolution rather than genetics, Waring and Wood further wrote that evolution itself has become more group-oriented. According to the researchers, “Culturally organized groups seem to solve adaptation problems more easily than individuals, through the combined values of social learning and cultural transmission in groups.” Cultural adaptations tend to occur more quickly in larger groups than in smaller ones.
From individuals to social ‘superorganisms’? A political reading
“In the very long term, we suggest that humans are evolving from individual genetic organisms to cultural groups that function as ‘superorganisms’, similar to ant colonies and hives.
However, these conclusions show a somewhat dangerous double reading from a political point of view, and should not be confused with being part of a homogeneous society where plurality is eliminated. Although we can affirm that cooperation in society facilitates the survival of the individual, evoking environments in which individuals are gray and equal, could lead to the danger of the loss of one’s identity and the freedom to undertake life projects without interference from the individual. rest.
How to go deeper:
Waring, associate professor of socio-ecological systems modeling; and Wood, a postdoctoral research associate at the School of Biology and Ecology, have just published their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B , the flagship journal of biological research of the Royal Society of London.
Timothy M. Waring et al, ‘Long-term gene – culture coevolution and the human evolutionary transition’, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1098 / rspb.2021.0538
