Culturgen (''culture'' + ''-gen'') is a term used to denote a theoretical 'unit' of

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

cultural evolution Cultural evolution is an evolutionary theory of social change. It follows from the definition of culture as "information capable of affecting individuals' behavior that they acquire from other members of their species through teaching, imitation a ...

. More specifically, analogous to a

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

, it is a

cultural artifact A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and British English spelling differences), is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology and sociology for anything created by humans which gives informa ...

or element of behaviour whose repetition or reproduction is transmissible from one

generation A generation refers to all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It can also be described as, "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and gr ...

. It has largely been displaced by the similar term '' meme''. The term was coined in 1980 by two American scientists—the biomathematician Charles J. Lumsden and the

sociobiologist Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within t ...

E. O. Wilson Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, entomologist and writer. According to David Attenborough, Wilson was the world's leading expert in his specialty of myrmecology, the study of an ...

—in a controversial attempt to analyse

by using techniques borrowed from

population genetics Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and between populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as Adaptation (biology), adaptation, ...

, to develop a comprehensive theory of how genes interact with cultural variation,Bell, Adrian, and Peter Richerson. 2008.
Review - Charles J. Lumsden and Edward O. Wilson, Genes, Mind, and Culture: 25th Anniversary Edition
" ''Journal of Bioeconomics'' 10:307–14. . and to infer a theory of evolution of the human mind. The fullest exposition of their theory appeared in their book ''Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process'' (1981),Lumsden, Charles J., and E. O. Wilson. 1982. "The ‘Culturgen’: Science or Science Fiction?" ''

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of Open Peer Commentary established in 1978 by Stevan Harnad and published by Cambridge University Press. It is modeled on the journal ''Current Anthropology'' (whic ...

'' 5(1):12–13. .William, B. J. 1982.
Have We a Darwin of Biocultural Evolution?
DF" ''American Anthropologist'' 84:848–52. eview of ''Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process'' which expanded upon the agenda that Wilson had laid out in his '' Sociobiology: The New Synthesis'' (1975) and '' On Human Nature'' (1978). In the book, the two assume that culturgens are stored in

long-term memory Long-term memory (LTM) is the stage of the Atkinson–Shiffrin memory model in which informative knowledge is held indefinitely. It is defined in contrast to short-term and working memory, which persist for only about 18 to 30 seconds. Long- ...

or are readily observable in the

external world Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

, and are to be transmitted via

socialization In sociology, socialization or socialisation (see spelling differences) is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cul ...

. ''Genes, Mind, and Culture'' received many highly negative reviews in the scientific press, however; it was re-issued in 2005 with a review of subsequent developments.Lumsden, Charles J., and E. O. Wilson. 2005. ''Genes, Mind, And Culture: The Coevolutionary Process'' (25th Anniversary ed.). Singapore: World Scientific
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It also effectively means much the same as the older term ''cultural trait'' used by anthropologists, and offers similar difficulties of identification and definition. The term has declined in popularity; the slightly older term '' meme''—coined by Richard Dawkins in his book ''

The Selfish Gene ''The Selfish Gene'' is a 1976 book on evolution by the ethologist Richard Dawkins, in which the author builds upon the principal theory of George C. Williams's '' Adaptation and Natural Selection'' (1966). Dawkins uses the term "selfish gen ...

'' (1976)—is now used in its stead, almost universally (even by Wilson in his later writings).

References

{{Culture Cultural concepts