## Did you know that...

...although the biological evolution of man as a species is very small, human society is subject to the so-called phenomenon of cultural evolution? Under cultural evolution, we could imagine that the characteristics of culture, such as language, ideas, knowledge, skills, or technology, all influence our behaviour and success, and we pass them on to the next generations. Patrick Savage and his collaborators published a study in which they traced the evolution of Japanese and English folk songs. Using a sample of 10,062 melodies, they demonstrated that songs undergo gradual modification. Like DNA mutations, changes in tones are more common if they do not significantly affect the overall melody of the song. In contrast to mutations at the DNA level, where mutations of the type of insertions and deletions are rare, in the case of the evolution of melodies, insertion or deletion of tones is more frequent than substitution. Using this example, they demonstrated that even creative art is the subject of an evolutionary process that carries an analogy with the evolution of genes, language, or other elements of culture.