Culture as a Life History Character

Abstract Relative to other primates, humans are a uniquely successful species in terms of population size, biomass, and geographical extent. This contribution suggests that the particular constellation of traits that characterizes human uniqueness evolved in concert with our increasing reliance on cultural relative to biological means for dealing with environmental challenges. Ceteris paribus, slower life histories generate less genetic variation per unit time; this leads to the potential for reduced rates of genetic evolution, which in some species leads to a compensatory increase in reliance on the cultural system of innovation and social learning. It is argued that there exists a cognitive continuum, corresponding to a considerable degree to the fast/slow life-history continuum, between animals that reproduce rapidly, have small brains, and rely primarily on the genetic system to track environmental change, and those animals that reproduce slowly, have large brains, and rely primarily on the cultural system to track environmental change. To the extent that Homo sapiens can be regarded as successful, that success stems from an evolutionary trajectory that has positioned our species at the cultural extreme of this continuum.