title: Methodological problems in evolutionary biology. VIII. Biology and culture.
abstract: Biology cannot accommodate all aspects of culture. Aspects of culture that a biological approach can take into account can be covered by the biological categories of "phenotype" and "environment". There is no need to treat culture as a separate category. Attempts to elaborate biological explanations of "cultural variation" will meet with success only if biologists expand theories of development, and integrate them in evolutionary biology. The alternative--elaborating the idea of so-called "cultural inheritance"--makes little sense from a biological point of view.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001695:Biology; D003469:Culture; D004777:Environment; D005828:Genetics, Population; D008957:Models, Genetic