The Idea
The main idea is to use learning from evolutionary biology, sociology, genetics, psychology and anthropology to get a better understanding of human behaviour and society. This will in turn help us better designing and implementing public policies.
Public Policy space has been predominately dominated by “Economic Reasoning”, which has not been able to fully explain how people interact with each other and with the State. By using “Biological Reasoning” i.e. concepts from the above mentioned fields to fill the gap.
Eventually, down the line one of the aims is to help solve societal problems like corruption, nepotism using these insights.
The Concept
The concept for this edition is the “Dual Inheritance Theory” aka Cultural-Gene Co-Evolution.
The theory says that human biology and behaviour are influenced by two different and interactive lines of inheritance:
A genetic line, which all organisms inherit from their biological parents
A cultural line, unique to our species, which we inherit from other members of our society.
The idea suggests that human society, culture and behaviour are not determined by genetics or culture alone but by a interplay by both of them.
Culture and genes interact in a feedback loop with each other. Changes in culture can lead to changes in genetic selection which can then influence culture of the society, and vice versa.
As an example
There are two sets of hunter gatherer communities in an area.
Due to a genetic mutation , Group A has inherited a gene which makes them more likely to cooperate.
Now, Group A hunts in groups and share their catch with each other. As a result they are much more healthier and much more likely to pass on their genetic material to their progeny.
Group B doesn’t have this cooperation gene, so cooperation is low. As generations pass, Group A’s size grows larger and they get more prosperous.
Group B sees this and imitates this. As generations pass percentage of people within Group B with the cooperative gene increases and now they form a majority.
So, Genetic traits(Cooperative Gene) push towards Cultural traits(Group Cooperation) and vice versa.
Adult Milk Tolerance:
Around 10,000 years ago, people started domestication of farm animals. They could now get milk.
A small percentage of adults had mutations which allowed them to digest milk( MT Group). Others didn’t (NMT Group). Now, MT Group could tolerate famines better and had a better chances of survival. They were much more likely to pass on their genes.
After a few generations, MT Group forms the majority of the population and almost all of them have domesticated animals.
Cultural trait(domestication) pushes towards genetic trait(Milk Tolerance) which pushes for the same cultural trait(Domestication).
Although, there has been some new evidence which doesn’t support role of Dual Inheritance in Adult Milk Tolerance.
Read More:
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1881
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/12/27/168144785/an-evolutionary-whodunit-how-did-humans-develop-lactose-tolerance
In other news, we at Takshashila Institution are exploring this unique intersection of Biology and Policy.
If you are interested in understanding Gene drive and its potential use in India. We are running a 3 week short course “Gene Drive: Understanding the Policy and Technology ”. The course will provide an introduction to the technical, regulatory, ethical and policy aspects of gene drives.