2024/11/18 by Kevin N. Laland, Marcus W. Feldman · 1 voice · 37 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Psychology · #Anthropology #Biology #Coevolution #Determinism #Developmental psychology #Epistemology #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Evolutionary biology #Gender studies #Genetic diversity and population structure #Human intelligence #Perspective (graphical) #Psychology #Race (biology) #Race, Genetics, and Society #Racism #Reductionism #Sociobiology #Sociology #Variation (astronomy)
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.2322874121
published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(48), e2322874121 (National Academy of Sciences)
openalex publication_date 2024/11/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Quantitative studies of cultural evolution and gene-culture coevolution (henceforth "CE" and "GCC") emerged in the 1970s, in the aftermath of the "race and intelligence quotient (IQ)" and "human sociobiology" debates, as a counter to extreme hereditarian positions. These studies incorporated cultural transmission and its interaction with genetics in contributing to patterns of human variation. Neither CE nor GCC results were consistent with racist claims of ubiquitous genetic differences between socially defined races. We summarize how genetic data refute the notion of racial substructure for human populations and address naive interpretations of race across the biological sciences, including those related to ancestry, health, and intelligence, that help to perpetuate racist ideas. A GCC perspective can refute reductionist and determinist claims while providing a more inclusive multidisciplinary framework in which to interpret human variation.