Genetic and cultural pools: Some suggestions for a unified theory of biocultural evolution

By introducing the concept of the natural selection of individual organisms, Darwin was able to cut through the mystification surrounding theological discussions of the origin of species. By placing the concept of an individual struggle for satisfaction in an analogous conceptual framework, a similar feat may be performed with regard to the mystification and reification surrounding much of contemporary social science. The proposed theory states that individuals are the generating force behind the origin, spread, and transformations of sociocultural complexes and that all sociocultural phenomena are explicable in terms of the differential replication of ideas by individuals as this is conditioned by selective pressures generated by particular material conditions of life. The theory is used to illuminate certain key issues in evolution, such as adaptation, group selection, and free willThis is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the Seventieth Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association in New York, November 19, 1971.