Differential Adaptations and Micro-Cultural Evolution in Guyana

Abstract

Guyana has been described as a plural society. The interdependent units of societies of this type comprise culturally differentiated groups rather than socially differentiated persons. The ecology of Guyana discloses that the conditions of pluralism derive from the evolutionary adaptation of culturally dissimilar populations to selective environmental forces. Contrary to widely held opinion, it appears that the selective advantage of pluralism is the reduction of competition among culturally distinctive groups.