Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

MIND & MATTER
March 2, 2012, 6:31 p.m. ET

Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes

By MATT RIDLEY

The island of Gaua, part of Vanuatu in the Pacific, is just 13 miles
across, yet it has five distinct native languages. Papua New Guinea, an
area only slightly bigger than Texas, has 800 languages, some spoken by
just a few thousand people. "Wired for Culture," a remarkable new book by
Mark Pagel, an American evolutionary biologist based in England, sets out
to explain this peculiar human property of fragmenting into mutually
uncomprehending cultural groups. His explanation is unsettling.

Access full article below:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577249464154315128.html
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