Selection
Volume/Issue:
Volume 3: Issue 1
Cultural Selection and Genetic Diversity in Humans
Authors:
H. Whitehead Department of Biology, Dalhousie University Halifax, Canada

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,
P. J. Richerson Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California Davis, USA

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, and
R. Boyd Department of Anthropology, University of California Los Angeles, USA

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Pages:
115–125
Online Publication Date:
22 Jul 2005
Publication Date:
01 Nov 2002
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/select.3.2002.1.9
Keywords:
evolution; evolution; evolution; Culture; human origins; genetic diversity; cultural group selection; gene-culture coevolution
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Recent research into human origins has largely focused on deducing past events and processes from current patterns of genetic variation. Some human genes possess unexpectedly low diversity, seemingly resulting from events of the late Pleistocene. Such anomalies have previously been ascribed to population bottlenecks or selection on genes. For four species of matrilineal whale, evidence suggests that cultural evolution may have reduced the diversity of genes which have similar transmission characteristics to selective cultural traits, through a process called cultural hitchhiking. Cultural evolution is characteristic of human societies and so should be considered as a potential determinant of human genetic diversity.  A stochastic simulation of gene and cultural dynamics in an array of hunter-gatherer tribes shows that cultural selection has the potential to severely reduce genetic diversity if: inter-tribe gene flows are reasonably low (<~0.6-15 genes/tribe/generation); cultural evolution changes fitness by ≯~0.3-3%/generation; and fitness is changed more by cultural innovation within a tribe than cultural assimilation from neighboring tribes. Thus cultural hitchhiking may explain low diversity and short coalescence times in mitochondrial and, especially, Y-linked human genes.

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Cover Selection
Selection
Print ISSN:
1585-1931
Online ISSN:
1588-287X

Selection
Language English
Year of
Foundation		 2001
Publication
Programme		 ceased
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 1585-1931 (Print)
ISSN 1588-287X (Online)

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