Anthropology consistently has linked evolutionary biology with cultural changes. Prior to the early 21st century, many anthropologists incorporated Darwinism into their understanding of cultural evolution. However, recently, more cultural evolution has been shaped by new understandings including the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis. New debates specifically have been revising prior standards to include evolutionary biology and ecology more into cultural anthropology to provide a larger understanding of the link between anthropology and evolutionary biology (Zeder, 2018). Interestingly enough, the article I chose to write on also discussed how there are internal developmental plasticity changes as well, a biological phenomenon that is also extremely important for anthropological changes and understandings.
Developmental plasticity is described as the way a single genotype can alter and change itself during development in an organism to respond to important environmental cues without altering the DNA of an organism (Zeder, 2018). This is an extremely interesting argument in the world of anthropology and biology because this phenomenon can be argued to be linked to domestication of a species. Climate change specifically has been noted to contribute to these developmental biology changes. For example, the melting of the last ice age has been argued to have led to eliciting a plastic expression of phenotypes to lead to the domestication of some animal species (Zeder, 2018). Due to the environmental changes of the melting ice age, it is argued that in some of these populations, animals adapted and were easier to domesticate due to their evolutionary drive for survival. The constant, stable, and predictable environments that are created by domestication are argued to lead to the permanence of these newly introduced phenotypes and traits (Zeder, 2018).
This article was particularly interesting to me because it took two of my favorite subjects and morphed them together. The idea of anthropology without biology is difficult to understand and the idea of biology without anthropology and culture is non existence. In this example, cultural changes, like domestication, have influenced evolutionary biology. The idea of anthropology and science working together is incredibly important for those of us interested in medicine and working in healthcare. Understanding culture allows physicians to deeper connect with their patients. Although the example discussed above pertains to evolutionary biology and domestication of animals, it fits into the bigger picture of understanding how culture can influence medicine and the importance of understanding culture to understand biology and how to correctly treat patients through the use of cultural competence.
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