ABSTRACT
The study of human cultural behavior turned the philosophical corner when the biologists William D. Hamilton and Robert Trivers gave us the theoretical models to show that the individual goals of reproduction are served through social interactions. In fact, the concerns for remedies to social inequalities may have been responsible for the widespread public acceptance of the environmental explanations of human culture. The Seville statement is an illustration where social scientists have pursued a belief system in preference to an open-minded avenue of investigation. The most striking generalization is that the environmental contingencies determine the nature of the social system. In some cases individuals aggregate simply to conserve body heat, whereas in other cases individuals gather together to ward off predators, find food, or in other ways facilitate reproduction. Cultural attributes are in some ways discrete units of social creativity that have analogies with gene activity.
