Draft chapters of a book tentatively entitled Not by Genes Alone: How culture transformed human evolution by Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd. (c) 2004. Forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press, December 2004.

The material is placed here strictly for the individual use of IU students in HPSC X755 and X320 "Scientific Concepts of Culture" Fall 2004, with the permission of the authors. You may download one copy for personal study only.

 

1: Culture is Essential	Introduction and outline of the book.
2: Culture Exists	Presents evidence that much of the variation among human groups results from cultural differences rather than differences in the physical or biological environments, differences in genetic composition, or institutional differences.
3: Culture Evolves	Argues that understanding culture change requires population thinking, but that direct analogies with evolutionary biology like memes are unlikely to be helpful.
4: Culture is an Adaptation	Presents evidence that the capacity for culture is a derived trait in the human lineage, and that it evolved in order to facilitate adaptation to rapidly fluctuating Pleistocene climates.
5: Culture is Maladaptive	Argues that the properties of culture that make it adaptive also lead to persistent maladaptation.
6: Culture and Genes Coevolve	Argues that culturally evolved social environments have shaped the genetic evolution of human psychology
7: Nothing about Culture Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution	Summary and Conclusion

References have been scanned and are available through OnCourse (use X320) as a "Schedule" item. Note that the file is 7MB so you probably don't want to download it over a telephone modem.