ABSTRACT
This chapter explains definition of culture and how it has been studied and thought about historically. It focuses on cultural differences at the expense of cultural similarities and discusses Brown's work on cultural universals and discusses their implications for evolution. A culture might be categorized as 'civilized', 'primitive' or 'tribal'. Furthermore, the reasons for these perceived differences in cultural complexity were seen by many as being the result of biological differences. Cultural relativism approach emphasizes that one needs to understand cultural practices within the context of the culture as a whole and it makes little sense to discuss whether a practice from one culture is more 'advanced' than that from another. Dual inheritance theory Proposes that we can 'inherit' behaviour via two routes: through our genes, and from our culture. Also cultural specialization and trade have been important in the development of large-scale civilizations; leading to human's domination of the planet.
