Cultural Evolution
Sociocultural Evolution · Cumulative Culture
The idea that cultures change over time through processes analogous to biological evolution — beliefs, customs, languages, and technologies spread, mutate, compete, and sometimes go extinct.
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Origin
The idea dates to the 19th century, with thinkers like Herbert Spencer and Lewis Henry Morgan proposing stages of cultural development. Modern cultural evolution theory was shaped by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Marcus Feldman (1981) and Boyd and Richerson (1985), who applied formal evolutionary models — variation, selection, transmission — to cultural traits. Richard Dawkins' concept of "memes" in The Selfish Gene (1976) popularized a related idea.
Updated February 22, 2026