Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34074122›Full record

ReviewProceedings. Biological sciences2021

Long-term gene-culture coevolution and the human evolutionary transition.

Timothy M Waring, Zachary T Wood

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
23citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

23 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Review
  3. Review
  4. Major transitions in sociocultural evolution.Evolutionary human sciences · 2025
    Article
  5. Is Culture Learned? The Neglected Role of Evoking Events.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2024
    Review
  6. Paradoxes in the coevolution of contagions and institutions.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Connecting human behaviour, meaning and nature.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024
    Article
  9. Characteristic processes of human evolution caused the Anthropocene and may obstruct its global solutions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024
    Review
  10. Evolution of the polycrisis: Anthropocene traps that challenge global sustainability.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024
    Article
  11. Review
  12. Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024
    Review
  13. Multilevel cultural evolution: From new theory to practical applications.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Article
  14. Four reasons for scepticism about a human major transition in social individuality.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023
    Article
  15. Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions: introduction to the theme issue.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023
    Article
  16. Human societal development: is it an evolutionary transition in individuality?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023
    Review
  17. Steps to individuality in biology and culture.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023
    Article
  18. The transition from animal to human culture-simulating the social protocell hypothesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023
    Article
  19. Communication for collaborative computation: two major transitions in human evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023
    Review
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Timothy M WaringSchool of Economics, Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA.
Zachary T WoodSchool of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

It has been suggested that the human species may be undergoing an evolutionary transition in individuality (ETI). But there is disagreement about how to apply the ETI framework to our species, and whether culture is implicated as either cause or consequence. Long-term gene-culture coevolution (GCC) is also poorly understood. Some have argued that culture steers human evolution, while others proposed that genes hold culture on a leash. We review the literature and evidence on long-term GCC in humans and find a set of common themes. First, culture appears to hold greater adaptive potential than genetic inheritance and is probably driving human evolution. The evolutionary impact of culture occurs mainly through culturally organized groups, which have come to dominate human affairs in recent millennia. Second, the role of culture appears to be growing, increasingly bypassing genetic evolution and weakening genetic adaptive potential. Taken together, these findings suggest that human long-term GCC is characterized by an evolutionary transition in inheritance (from genes to culture) which entails a transition in individuality (from genetic individual to cultural group). Thus, research on GCC should focus on the possibility of an ongoing transition in the human inheritance system.

Indexed as

Biological EvolutionCultural EvolutionEvolution, MolecularHumanscultureevolutionary transitiongene–culture coevolutionhuman evolutioninheritance

Identifiers

PMID34074122
PMCPMC8170228

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.