Is cultural evolution Lamarckian?

Maria E. Kronfeldner*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

The article addresses the question whether culture evolves in a Lamarckian manner. I highlight three central aspects of a Lamarckian concept of evolution: the inheritance of acquired characteristics, the transformational pattern of evolution, and the concept of directed changes. A clear exposition of these aspects shows that a system can be a Darwinian variational system instead of a Lamarckian transformational one, even if it is based on inheritance of acquired characteristics and/or on Lamarckian directed changes. On this basis, I apply the three aspects to culture. Taking for granted that culture is a variational system, based on selection processes, I discuss in detail the senses in which cultural inheritance can be said to be Lamarckian and in which sense problem solving, a major factor in cultural change, leads to directed variation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)493-512
Number of pages20
JournalBiology and Philosophy
Volume22
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2007
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Cultural evolution
  • Directed variation
  • Inheritance of acquired characteristics
  • Lamarckism
  • Memes
  • Problem solving
  • Transformational evolution

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Is cultural evolution Lamarckian?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this