2024-08-03 06:25:41
◇Genes do not evolve alone/Written by Peter J. Richardson and Robert Boyd/Translated by Kim Jun-hong/476 pages/25,000 won/Eulyu Publishing Co.
According to the theory of evolution, superior genes have a strong instinct to spread their ‘seeds’ widely. So does today’s declining birth rate mean a regression in human history?
The authors, who study environmental science and anthropology at the University of California, find the answer to how humans came to be today in the ‘gene-culture coevolution theory’. It is said that humans did not evolve by choosing only one of the two paths, genetic nature or cultural learning, but rather evolved through the interaction of the two attributes. In a total of seven chapters, they present a broad hypothesis on human evolution and support it with in-depth arguments. In ‘Not Just Genes’ published in 2009, they corrected translation errors and supplemented annotations.
According to the authors, all cultural evolutionary events that have occurred before the 21st century are connected to the present, meaning that we are deeply involved in the evolutionary process by choosing which cultural variations to adopt or ignore.
The view that the global trend of declining birth rates is due to the occurrence of a ‘selfish cultural transformation’ is presented. Due to modernization, cultural transmission from people other than parents through educational institutions and other means has become routine for humans. However, in order to obtain high social status and economic benefits, those who receive more education gradually postpone marriage and childrearing. It is said that the low birth rate worsened as those who have relatively greater influence on cultural transmission spread their beliefs and values.
He also meticulously analyzes the past choices of mankind that were taken for granted. He suggests the keyword ‘social instinct’ for the fact that there were not many Germans who tried to protect their Jewish friends under Nazi Germany in the past. He says that as the ‘tribal instinct’ of living in a separate group became extreme, Jews who did not belong to the in-group (a group where individuals have a sense of camaraderie in terms of norms, values, etc.) came to be viewed as targets of suspicion and murder.
Reporter Lee Ji-yoon [email protected]
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2024-08-03 06:25:41