Adopting cheese technology can halt a population’s lactase gene evolution

Evidence

If populations had developed these bodies of technical know-how too soon, the selection pressure on genes for doing the same job would have been weakened. Thus, understanding who is, and is not, lactase persistent requires understanding both how cultural evolution can drive, and how it can inhibit, genetic evolution. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 295

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Culture-fueled lactose persistence spread to a third of humanity in ten millennia — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 299; Religious practices may have genetically altered human populations through gene-culture coevolution; Cultural evolution can create selection pressures stronger than natural ones — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 282 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Religious practices may have genetically altered human populations through gene-culture coevolution #expands (0.90)
• Cultural evolution can create selection pressures stronger than natural ones #expands (0.85) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 282
• Rice wine production selected for genes that make drinking unpleasant #exemplifies (0.85) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 290
• Starch-heavy diets selected for extra copies of the AMY1 gene #exemplifies (0.85) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 309
• The onset date of rice agriculture predicts half the ADH1B gene variation #exemplifies (0.80) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 288