Chinese food in Western Europe), in particular, show quite clearly how
“inheritance with modification”shapes recipes.^11
We can also observe the people create food based on recipes much like our
cells produce proteins based on the program set by the DNA and that food, in
turn, influencesfitness. We can thus take recipes as replicators and consider
their selection on two levels. On the replicator level, recipes are shaped by
selective pressures such as appearance, the costs of ingredients, technological
development (think of the microwave), people’s interest in exotic spices,
beliefs and symbolic values attached to some food, and so on. The selection
of the recipes on this level is irrespective of theirfitness value for the organism.
On the level of the organism, in turn, the actualfitness value of recipes plays a
role. As long as we adapt and change recipes irrespective of theirfitness value,
the variation of recipes remains“blind.”The influence of modern dietary
advice on recipes, in turn, can be seen as guided variation, although such
advice is based on theassumedfitness value of food. Further, we can note that
behavioral as well epigenetic inheritance play important roles in the spread of
recipes. Recipes are often passed on by cooking or baking together rather than
memorizing instructions; epigenetic factors were shown to be powerful modi-
fiers of food preferences (see section 2.3).
Computer models of attraction and natural selection (McElreath & Henrich,
2007) have shown that there are many ways in which these processes can
interact, and in many scenarios true natural selection can occur. Importantly,
one of the lessons of these studies is that it is not necessary to maintain a strict
analogy between genes and memes for applying evolutionary theory to culture.
The universal principles of evolutionary theory (not unlike we introduced
them at the beginning of this chapter) can guide the study of phenomena that
are not necessarily structured as neo-Darwinian genetic evolution requires, the
latter appearing as a special case of a more general model.^12
For the purposes of this book, the effects of both attraction and natural
selection on cultural transmission will be considered as selective pressures on
cultural bits. New variants of cultural traits appear for a variety of reasons,
including purposeful changes, induced (but not necessary purposeful)
changes, and random variation (such as memory distortions). The fate of
these variants will be determined by selective pressures, which stem from both
maturationally natural psychological constraints and other factors. We will
not always consider the question of whether particular selective processes are
(^11) A recent study (Lindenfors et al., 2014) found an increase in the complexity of European
recipes since the Middle Ages: there are increases in the numbers of steps, separate partial
processes, methods, and ingredients. There is greater number of diverse components with the
progress of time, subjected to a greater number of operations, and linked by more connections.
(^12) As Jablonka and Lamb (2005, pp. 223–31), argued, some problems with cultural evolution
can be linked to corresponding problems in genetic evolution, and the solution might lie in a
revision of the neo-Darwinian synthesis of evolutionary theory.
Evolution 47