Mixed Messages

Cultural and Genetic Inheritance in the Constitution of Human Society

Paul Robert A.

As social and symbolic animals – animals with language and systems of signs – humans are informed by two different kinds of heritage, one biological, the other cultural. Scholars have tended to study our genetic and symbolic lineages separately, but in recent years some have begun to explore them together, offering a "dual inheritance theory". In this book, Robert A. Paul offers an entirely new and original consideration of our dual inheritance to date, going deep inside an extensive ethnographic record to outline a fascinating relationship between our genetic codes and symbolic systems.

Examining a wide array of cultures, Paul reveals how the inherent tensions between these two modes of transmission generate many of the features of human society, such as marriage rules, initiation rituals, gender asymmetry, and sexual symbolism. Exploring differences in the requirements, range, and agendas of genetic and symbolic reproduction, he shows that a properly conceived dual inheritance model does a better job of accounting for the distinctive character of actual human societies than either evolutionary or socio-cultural construction theories can do alone. Ultimately this book offers a powerful call for a synthesis of the traditions inspired by Darwin, Durkheim, and Freud – one that is critically necessary if we are to advance our understanding of human social life.

About the Author

Robert A. Paul is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emory University. He is the author of "Moses and Civilization" and "The Tibetan Symbolic World", the latter published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews

"'Mixed Messages' is a characteristically brilliant analysis of one of the deep puzzles of our existence: how dual inheritance – genetic and cultural – shapes what it is to be human. The clear-eyed and ethnographically rich analysis both summarizes the issue and takes the discussion forward. The clarity and the rigor of the argument are remarkable, as are the insights into gender and power" – Tanya Luhrmann, Stanford University

"Paul uses Dual Inheritance Theory as a tool for ethnographic interpretation in a highly original way. Using a rich array of ethnographic evidence, he very effectively demonstrates that culture is a brawny phenomenon that is key to understanding why humans are so different from even our closest primate relatives" – Peter J. Richerson, University of California, Davis

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