Animal Traditions: Behavioural Inheritance in Evolution
Animal Traditions maintains that the assumption that the selection of genes supplies both a sufficient explanation of the evolution of behaviour and a true description of its course is, despite its almost universal acclaim, wrong. Eytan Avital and Eya Jablonka contend that evolutionary explanations must take into account the well-established fact that, in mammals and birds, the transfer of learnt information across generations is both ubiquitous and indispensable. The introduction of the behavioural inheritance system into the Darwinian explanatory scheme enables the authors to offer new interpretations for common behaviours such as maternal behaviours, behavioural conflicts within families, adoption and helping. This approach offers a richer view of heredity and evolution, integrates developmental and evolutionary processes, suggests new lines for research and provides a constructive alternative to both the selfish gene and meme views of the world.
