13 Sep '16 22:16>1 edit
Looking for guidance on these questions:
Wikipedia defines (biological) evolution as "change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations."
Agree with this nontechnical definition?
Are there characteristics of populations that change in non biological ways?
What I am getting at is the idea of cultural evolution, a kind of change in cultural institutions, change that exhibits variation and selection, loosely called survival of the fittest.
Could it be that species that have cultural institutions that evolve, have underlying heritable biological characteristics that select for capacity to adapt cultural institutions to their benefit? In short, is there a change-tolerant or even change-friendly gene?
Wikipedia defines (biological) evolution as "change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations."
Agree with this nontechnical definition?
Are there characteristics of populations that change in non biological ways?
What I am getting at is the idea of cultural evolution, a kind of change in cultural institutions, change that exhibits variation and selection, loosely called survival of the fittest.
Could it be that species that have cultural institutions that evolve, have underlying heritable biological characteristics that select for capacity to adapt cultural institutions to their benefit? In short, is there a change-tolerant or even change-friendly gene?