be manipulated in virtually endless ways, yielding creative cultural products in
different media. Third, symbolic inheritance implies interpretation, that is,
information is evaluated (probably already perceived) against an already
existing framework of symbolic structures and meanings in the mind of the
recipient.
We can say that our life is the product of a complex interaction of several
evolutionary processes. To take an obvious example, whereas our genes get
passed on if we raise many children, our cultural memes might be better off if we
write many books. It would be a mistake, however, to see the interaction of
different inheritance systems in merely antagonistic terms. Instead, we can
consider each of them as factors that shape the environment in which other
systems evolve. For example, tool use, language, and other ancient technologies
shaped human anatomy (such as our larynx, digestive system, hands, and
brains) in important ways. This leads us to an important theoretical dilemma.
Shall we consider the four inheritance systems as dimensions in which we
humans evolve? Or shall we consider them as arenas of four different evolu-
tionary processes, which happen to interact in populations of organisms called
humans? Whereas Jablonka and Lamb’s approach is closer to thefirst alterna-
tive, Dawkins’focus on the perspectives of genes and memes implies the second.
It is perhaps not important to take sides in this debate for the purpose of this
chapter, but the perspective we choose certainly has far-reaching implications
for theorizing about evolution and ultimately for the way in which we think
about human existence. On the one hand, Dawkins’way of looking at evolution
certainly shows life from a new, counterintuitive angle that relativizes the
organism’s point of view, which we intuitively take. On the other hand, almost
any real-life process in human evolution involves multiple systems of inherit-
ance. Early expectations that studying genes would directly lead to a better
understanding of traits and behaviors proved too simplistic in most cases.
Taking the perspective of the gene helps us understand the next important
question, that of the levels of evolution (Wilson & Wilson, 2007, 2008).
While the theory of natural selection mainly focuses on the question of how
genes spread due to their influence on organisms, genes are subject to selection
in a low-level process calledgenomic conflict(Stearns & Hoekstra, 2005,
pp. 196–213). A well-known example of genomic conflict ismeiotic drive,
a process in which some genetic variants produce a toxic substance that
excludes other variants from being transmitted during the formation of
reproductive cells (egg and sperm in humans).^5 Competition between variants
(^5) Meiosisis the process by which genetic information is passed on to the gametes (repro-
ductive cells). It works so that information from both versions of DNA (inherited from the father
and mother, respectively) has equal chance to be passed on to the next generation. The two
chromosome copies can carry different variants of the same gene (called different alleles).
However, some alleles can produce a toxic effect that prevents the other copy of the chromosome
Evolution 29