Dual Inheritance Theory Summary

In studying the evolution of human behavior there are many different approaches, learned in Fuentes book. These four major approaches focus on natural selection. These approaches are, Human Behavioral Ecology, Evolutionary Psychology, Dual Inheritance Theory, and Memetics. Human Behavioral Ecology is the study of behavior from ecological and evolutionary perspectives with the goal of linking ecological factors and adaptive behavior. (Krebs and Davies 1997). Evolutionary Psychology is understanding the evolution of psychological mechanisms resulting in human behavior. Dual Inheritance Theory holds the basal perspectives that culture is evolutionarily important, that culture evolves in a Darwinian fashion, and that understanding gene-culture
While HBE is allied with anthropology and biology, with the aspect to determine how ecological and social factors affect behavioral variability within and between populations by the study of function. The main thesis of EP is that culture is generated by information processing mechanisms situated in human minds. (Fuentes, 2009). The goal of evolutionary psychology is to identify the selection pressures that have shaped the human psyche over evolutionary time and to test whether human psychological mechanisms actually show features that one would expect if they were designed to solve these particular adaptive problems. (Fuentes, 2009). The basic approach of evolutionary psychology is these three questions; what selections pressures are most relevant to understanding the adaptive problems under consideration, what psychological mechanism has evolved to solve that adaptive problem? What is the relationship between the structure of these psychological mechanisms and human culture? The methods and outcomes of EP have a linkage to HBE are how they are complementary. EP includes HBE and DIT. For DIT culture evolves in a Darwinian fashion, and in understanding gene-culture is key to understanding human behavior. In the environment of evolutionary adaptiveness it’s a period of time when human underwent a majority of their adaptation, The Pleistocene Era. The two most discussed topics of evolutionary psychology are mate choice and sexual