Page 510 - Cultures and Organizations

The Evolution of Cultures 475

is unavoidable, there is no way that the earth can be turned into a huge
museum. It does, though, pose ethical problems of preservation of species,
cultures, languages, and artifacts. If nothing else, self-interest can motivate
preservation, such as of genetic diversity.

Evolution Uses Many Replicators
Genes, societal subgroups, and societies are some of today’s main replica-
tors that evolve. The laws of chance suggest that the more numerous we
are, the faster genetic evolution proceeds. Cultural evolution may have lost
us a lot of variety as polities have merged on a massive scale, but in com-
pensation it is becoming more varied as societies become more complex
internally.

Evolution Evolves
Currently we have limited understanding of cultural evolution as a recent
addition. The knowledge we do have is mainly from biologists and has only

just begun to influence the social sciences and humanities, let alone the
public domain. Social scientists from various disciplines are now beginning

to publish findings about cultural evolution using techniques that model
the behavior of individuals or smaller units and to study the behavior of the
48
larger social system. There is a lot of work to do in these areas if human-
ity wishes to surf the current high waves of its evolution successfully.
Can we humans meet these challenges? For the moment, our propen-
sity as group animals is to bend our mental powers to our own, or our
group’s, interests. We tend to believe anything that makes our group look
good, such as being God’s special favorites, rather than to be impartial
about who we are. Philosophy and religion are still pretty much divorced
from the material, biological world. These circumstances stand in the

way of a sober assessment and of the joint taking of responsibility for our
world.

Our societies are deeply influenced by recent events in our evolution.
Each of us is likely to be involved in activities that have characteristics of
hunting, gathering, herding, and agriculture. Some activities have a lot
in common with hunting. Consultants, salespeople, and creative profes-
sionals, for instance, move from one successful contract or creation to the
next; they experience the thrill of a success and the need for hunting the
next one. Other activities are alike to herding. Investors, politicians, and
researchers are busy accumulating companies, voters, and publications,
respectively, and have to be anxious about theft and deceit. Many everyday