ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the 'evolutionary view' on cultural evolution and adaptation. This chapter distinguishes between the ipsative and the additive adaptation. It examines if and how this distinction triggers new or at least different research questions in the field of cultural adaptation studies. On the backdrop of the never-ending debate for or against the concepts of 'fidelity' and 'equivalence', the chapter discusses how an evolutionary view of adaptation offers ammunition to the opponents of the approach, and provides arguments to those adaptation critics who intend to step beyond the traditional fidelity-based discourse. It rekindles the old distinction between a study of 'adaptation as an end-product' and a study of 'adaptation as a process', and suggests that however obvious this solution may appear, it is less straightforward than one might think. Looking at a specific set of film noir adaptations, the chapter examines one possible conceptualization of what 'best fit' may mean in a specific historical context.
