News release:
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2008/february20/ehrlich-022008.html
Abstract and link to full text
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0711802105
From the news release:
``Scientists at Stanford University have shown for the first time that
cultural traits affecting survival and reproduction evolve at a different
rate than other cultural attributes. Speeded or slowed rates of evolution
typically indicate the action of natural selection in analyses of the
human genome.
This study of cultural evolution, which compares the rates of change for
structural and decorative Polynesian canoe-design traits, is scheduled
to appear Tuesday, Feb. 19, in the online Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
..
But Nina Jablonski, chair of the Anthropology Department at Pennsylvania
State University, said she is sold on the research. "This paper is
revolutionary in its approach ... one of the most significant papers to
be written in anthropology in the last 20 years," she said.''
Submitted by tjl on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 11:47am
duh.
#1 Fri, 02/22/2008 - 12:19pm
Bill Cosby said it best: "Intellectuals, are those who study, things that people do naturally"
#2 Fri, 02/22/2008 - 2:36pm
My favorite quotes from the news release:
"Unfortunately, people have learned how to avoid natural selection in the short term through unsustainable approaches such as inequity and excess consumption. But this is not going to work in the long term," she said. "We need to begin aligning our culture with the powerful forces of nature and natural selection instead of against them."
and
Examples of cultural approaches that are putting humans at risk include "everything from the economic incentives, industrial technologies and growth mentality that cause climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity, to the religious polarization and political ideologies that generate devastating conflict around the globe," Rogers said. "If the leadership necessary to undertake critically needed cultural evolution in these areas can't be found, our civilization may find itself weeded out by natural selection, just like a bad canoe design."
#3 Fri, 02/22/2008 - 10:20pm