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An interesting idea that Dennett explores is the relationship between culture and evolution.  He indicates that culture has had a significant impact on the course of human evolution by saying that, “What we are is very much a matter of what culture has made us” (340). However, he also indicates that culture itself can be understood in evolutionary terms, because, “like life itself, and every other wonderful thing, culture must have a Darwinian origin” (341).  I find the idea of viewing culture through the analogy of evolution very interesting, and I think it fits well with some of the ideas that we discussed in class.  In the same way that a non-reproducing human can affect evolution by affecting culture, an evolutionary process must take place for the culture itself to develop.  In a sense, the earliest societies are the common ancestors of the wide variety of modern cultures that have persisted into modern times through a process of sustainability that could be compared to natural selection.  Viewing culture in this way emphasizes the commonalities shared by human societies despite their unique divergence, and that major world powers and isolated aboriginal tribes are equally viable and successful in the eyes of cultural evolution.
Elise