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Darwin And Charles Darwin's Relationship Between Evolution And Culture

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Humans have been forming societies since the dawn of man itself. These societies first began as small packs of pre-humans who would hunt and forage together, and as human intellect became greater and more prevalent, so did their groupings. Society, from the point of view of human innovation, is one of man’s most diverse and varied inventions, with no two tribes being exactly the same, however, that is not to say that there are absolutely no over branching similarities among the subdivisions of humanity. One such idea among all human societies is that of culture, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Culture as the social behaviors, beliefs, material traits of a society, racial or religious group ("Culture"). One crucial question asked by anthropologists regarding the nature of human culture is whether or not biological evolution influences the cultures of the world. How would influential minds in the area of evolution like Darwin or Lamarck view this kind of question, and more importantly if deemed true, does it lend credibility to the theory of Social Darwinism?
How would Charles Darwin view the relationship between evolution and culture? Based on his work, and his support of the idea of natural selection, it can be inferred that Charles Darwin would argue that indeed human evolution does in fact have an impact on culture, and vice versa. Natural Selection is the idea that organisms that are more adapted to their environment will survive long enough to procreate and pass

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