An official revealed that CARe Keralam, which recently scientifically
validated the anti-diabetes ayurvedic formulation Nishaakathakaadhi
Kashayam (NKK) thus facilitating its sale abroad, is going ahead with
the same process for other products too.
Led by Adrian V. Bell, researchers from the University of
California Davis used a mathematical equation, called the Price
equation, which describes the conditions for altruism to evolve.
The equation motivated the researchers to compare the genetic and the
cultural differentiation between neighbouring social groups.
The researchers used previously calculated estimates of genetic
differences, and the World Values Survey (whose questions are likely
to be heavily influenced by culture in a large number of countries)
as a source of data to compute the cultural differentiation
between the same neighbouring groups.
When compared, it was found that the role of culture had a much
greater scope for explaining our pro-social behaviour than
genetics.
In applying their results to ancestral populations, the World Values Survey was less useful.
But ancient cultural practices, such as exclusion from the
marriage market, denial of the fruits of cooperative activities,
banishment and execution happen now as they did then.
Such activities would have exerted strong selection against genes
tending toward antisocial behaviour, and presumably in favour of genes
that predisposed individuals toward being pro-social rather than
anti-social.
This would result in the gene-culture coevolution of human prosocial propensities.
Source:The study has been published in the latest edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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