Cultural speciation is the formation of separate and distinct cultures in human society and is a product of cultural evolution. Just like biological evolution, cultural evolution comprises two main features: random mutation and natural selection.
What evolves is not the subject itself but rather its design, i.e., the information that determines how it is formed. In the case of a living organism, this design is its genotype or genetic constitution. Together an organism’s genotype and its environment determine its phenotype, i.e., its observable characteristics. In the case of society, the equivalent of the genotype is its culture, that is, its values, norms, beliefs, and symbols, all of which are, of course, information. This culture together with its environment determine society and the latter is the equivalent of an organism’s phenotype.
Only living things and some of their artifacts can recognise and process information. Thus, evolution applies only to living things and potentially the artifacts that they create. Furthermore, for evolution to take place the entity must be capable of self-assembly from its design. Only living organisms are capable of this and not, for the present at least, their artifacts. In the latter case, an external agent is still needed to carry out the assembly.
Random mutation in living organisms is due to changes to the genome, caused for example by duplication errors, radiation, or viruses. Many of these changes are harmful, a few are neutral, and even fewer beneficial. Human society is a living thing, and it too is subject to random changes in its equivalent of the genome, that is, its culture. These random mutations take the form of new theories, opinions, attitudes, lies, etc. Before the advent of the internet they would propagate quite slowly and often die out. However, the internet has subjected society to a form of “radiation” that has accelerated the rate of random mutation enormously. New ideas proliferate and propagate at a rate never before seen. The effect of this has been to accelerate cultural evolution.
The environment in which these cultural mutations operate is the natural one, the social one and their prevailing states. Together these environments exercise the equivalent of natural biological selection. In principle, cultural mutations that are clearly true to reality and of benefit to society should be selected for by this environment; others that are neutral should persist perhaps to come to the fore if the environment changes; and those that are clearly harmful should expire. However, vested interests can influence the propagation of information. This occurred before the advent of the internet when, for example, the Catholic Church supressed scientific discoveries. More recently, commercial, and political interests have promoted information on the internet that supports their objectives and supressed that which does not. To some extent this alters the direction of cultural evolution by accelerating the rate of propagation in some directions, e.g., consumerism, whilst slowing it in others, e.g., environmentalism.
In living organisms, evolution leads to speciation. Successful mutations accumulate on different lines, and these lines become increasingly different. Initially, they form sub-species that can interbred but eventually, they become entirely separate species that cannot. The same is true of culture, initially cultural mutations lead to sub-cultures which operate largely within the main one. Interaction between the sub-culture and main culture slows the rate of divergence. However, as mutations accumulate, it becomes increasingly difficult for the sub-culture to operate within the main one, and a separation can occur. An example is the migration of religious groups from Europe to the USA.
Such speciation is thought to have occurred in early hominids. The Italian scientist, Fiorenzo Facchini suggests that “Culture probably played a double role in the process of human speciation: (1) in isolation and differentiation from other groups of hominids that did not have such behaviour; and (2) in adaptation to the environment and in communication between groups that had the same cultural behaviour, thus slowing down or preventing the conditions of isolation that lead to new species.” (Facchini, 2006)
When migration is impossible and a distance between the cultures cannot be achieved, then they will compete, often negatively, as for example in the case of political polarisation in the USA and the Russia/Ukraine war.
Finally, in humans, cultural evolution is thought to be a precursor to biological evolution. So, if geographical separation is possible in the long term, then biological speciation will eventually occur.
References
Facchini, F. “Culture, Speciation and the Genus Homo in Early Humans.” Human Evolution 21, 51–57 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11598-006-9004-y
Nazari, V. & Belardinelli, S., 2023. “Speciation and Cultures: The Interplay of Biological and Cultural Diversity”. Conference: Speciation: The Origin and Persistence of Species (Gordon Research Seminar) At: Lucca (Barga), Italy; 28–29 January 2023 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367280120_Speciation_and_Cultures_The_Interplay_of_Biological_and_Cultural_Diversity
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