Does Culture Really Evolve Like Organisms Do?
nautil.us
nautil.us
1) entities exist and replicate 2) changes occur during replication 3) selection processes pertain that mean some entities replicate more than others
If culture meets those criteria then it is evolving. That may not help you understand the details or make any useful predictions. You probably need all kinds of additional models and theories to get to grips with culture. There may be other non-evolution processes happening as well. But to decide if it is evolving, just determine if these criteria apply, and you are done.
Certainly the parallels with biological evolution aren't completely accurate, but throughout history, cultures have conquered and displaced others and were able to do so (in part at least) because they were doing something different (presumably "better" from survival standpoint). So from this perspective cultures have certainly "evolved" partially through a natural selection process.
The real differences are in the radically different composition of an organism and an idea/meme/culture/institution, with implications for the way these ideas are transmitted and transformed.
As an evolutionary biologist and a student of cultural transmission this idea (memetics) has always annoyed me from both ends. It is a bad idea, and I wish it would die. It's even more annoying that it somehow manages to add to Dawkins' misplaced prestige.
isn't that because fads become "locked" in time? the fad is well evolved for the current culture but as the cluture changes the fad becomes very poorly suited for it, and dies.
i could make the same argument that you make against fads against any once-prolific-but-now-dead species, e.g. how could species x be wiped out by a change in its environment? that flies in the face of evolution creating a superior species.
evoltuionary advantage stems from a superior adaption to the current environment, and culture happens to change vastly more frequently than the environments most (if not all) species live in. hence the rapid rise and fall of memes.
I am not saying they are equivalent, just that the propagation of a fad has similarities to the propagation of alcohol-producing bacteria in a closed environment.
Why are we trying to make these ham-fisted analogies at all? Ideas do not behave anything like genes; they have almost no properties in common with genes.
The question is to what degree has the overclass evolved our culture in ways that best suits the financial interests of the overclass (e.g., plutocrats, large corporations etc)?
Has our culture been domesticated by the overclass through overclass influence on educational curricula?
If so, this would seem to be a strong argument against common core.