Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

The power of culture

Scientists assume that Homo sapiens originated in Africa about 300,000 years ago. From there it spread throughout the world and today it has been adapted to all habitats. There is no doubt that culture has been and continues to be fundamental in this adaptation.

But to what extent is the cultural impulse to the ecological expansion of our species? Charles Perreault, an anthropologist at Arizona State University (ASU), answers this question and concludes that culture allowed sapiens to spread across the planet 300 times faster than they did through purely genetic evolution. In other words: by 300,000 years, it has achieved what it would have done by genetic adaptation in 88 million years.

To reach this conclusion, the researcher compared the geographical and ecological distribution of modern humans with another 6,000 wild mammals. This confirms that other mammalian species occupy an average area of 64 square kilometers. Homo sapiens, 51 million square kilometers.

In addition, to such diverse habitats as deserts, jungles, tundras, high mountains, etc if it had only been modified by genetic evolution, it would have been branched into 2,200 different lineages. In contrast, the genetic diversity of the human species is much smaller than that found within a particular group of chimpanzees.

Perrault also points out that cultural diversity leads to local specialization. Thus, ethnolinguistic groups occupy territories smaller and more delimited than species.

After all, Perrault has confirmed that social and technological innovation, the accumulation and transmission of knowledge, and the ability to cooperate have given our species the power to transcend biology.

Today, scientific culture should provide the capacity to address the potential and consequences of the acceleration of technological development.