Kayla Southworht
Professor Nickles
Phil 480
December 12, 2015
Lamarck’s cultural evolution The word Lamarckian is referred to as being the view that offspring acquire their traits through inheritance from their parents. It is often seen as a bad word in the name of evolution due to Darwin’s contribution to evolution as being seen as correct. However, when cultural evolution is brought into the situation there can be some Lamarckian aspects brought into play. This may seem confusing as Lamarck is referring to genotypes and phenotypes of biological evolution. The reason cultural evolution is seen on the grounds of being Lamarckian is culture itself is often times acquired traits children inherit in a learning manner from their parents and others around them but not in a biological standpoint. Lamarckian evolution and cultural evolution can be seen as having similarities between them through the aspects of guided variation, transmission and conformity bias. …show more content…
A prime example of this comes from the time of human predecessors learning to hunt. This is a prime example of guided variation in cultural evolution as one of the human predecessors learned that a certain technique and weaponry was needed in order to catch the adequate amount of meat for their perspective tribe. In doing that, it causes other members of the tribes imitate the initial predecessor in order to make it their own behavior that can be taught to their offspring to ensure their tribes survival. This is Lamarckian as the trait of hunting will become acquired to the tribe’s offspring due to the inheritance the parents made. Thus showing how guided variation in cultural evolution is