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Comments on the Analogy between Biological and Cultural Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Stuart M. Peters*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, SUNY-Stony Brook, NY 11794

Abstract

Norman Yoffee's characterizations of the theory of biological evolution and the theory of cultural evolution are inaccurate, unsupported in his work and, further, unsupportable in the literature of evolutionary studies. Therefore, his conclusion that the analogy between biological and cultural evolution is inappropriate cannot be logically valid.

Type
Comments
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1980 

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References

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