How Culture Influences Genetics

 I was furthering my education on culture and communication today by doing some reading.  I came across some interesting information about a topic called Dual Inheritance Theory.  The theory goes that culture affects us biologically.  We have genetic ancestors as we all know, but we also have cultural ancestors.  Both culture and genetics make up who we are.

Dual Inheritance Theory provides obvious examples of the influence of culture on genetics.  One example is the cultural influence of relying heavily on technology having the genetic influence of making our bones and muscles weaker. Another example is the cultural influence of moving from a hunter gatherer society to consuming fast food and becoming a microwave society having the genetic influence of the widespread problem of obesity.

Another example of the influence of culture over genetics provided by Dual Inheritance Theory is the cultural influence of changes in diet have on the genetic influence of changes to the digestive system. For example the genetic traits of having flat teeth to chew with, rather than sharp teeth to kill animals with and tear flesh apart, and still being able to digest meat: this has helped humans with the cultural influence of us evolving from a vegan diet to one that includes meat.  As we evolved from being plant eaters in Eden, to meat eaters after the fall of man; this cultural influence had a genetic influence.

The Bell Curve written in 1994 by psychologist Richard Hernstein and political scientist Charles Murray, argues that human intelligence is influenced by environmental cultural influences and inherited genetic influences.  The findings of this thesis is that some cultures are more are more genetically superior to others.  This is because some cultures have a higher level of education and therefore, enjoy a higher socio-economic status than others.

To conclude, Dual Inheritance Theory proves that there is an influence of culture on genetics. Cultural influences on behaviour have genetic influences on the physiology of humans and other species.