Yes — Humans Are Still Evolving: How Culture Continues to Shape Our Genes

If evolution is real, why doesn’t it seem to be happening now?

Many people think that modern technology and civilization have freed humans from natural selection — that we’ve "conquered nature" and no longer need to evolve. That idea is common, but incorrect. Humans, like all other species, have been shaped by evolution — and we continue to evolve today. The ways we live, the foods we eat and the diseases we encounter are all part of the environments that drive evolutionary change.

How evolution still works for people

I study human adaptation as an anthropologist. An adaptation is a trait that helps individuals survive or reproduce in a particular environment. When those traits give people an advantage, they become more common across generations because their carriers leave more descendants.

Some traits that helped our ancestors remain successful are familiar: two hands that allow skilled tool use, upright walking on two legs that frees our hands, and relatively large brains that enable planning, reasoning and complex social life. These biological features made culture possible — meaning shared knowledge, beliefs and technologies such as clothing, housing and agriculture.

Culture changes our environment — and evolution responds

We often think of environment as climate, plants and animals, but it also includes what we eat and which pathogens we encounter. Cultural innovations — building houses, inventing farming, domesticating animals, creating vaccines — alter those environments. But culture does not remove all environmental pressures. Sunlight, extreme temperatures and infectious diseases still affect survival and reproduction, so natural selection continues to operate.

Concrete examples from the last 10,000 years

Skin pigmentation: Ultraviolet (UV) radiation damages skin and increases cancer risk, while melanin pigment protects against UV. In sunny tropical regions, darker skin is advantageous. In cloudier, cooler regions, lighter skin improves vitamin D production, which is important for bone health. Genes that control melanin levels have shifted in frequency as populations moved into different light environments.

Lactase persistence (milk digestion): About 10,000 years ago people began domesticating animals, and in some societies they later started milking them. Most adult mammals stop producing lactase, the enzyme that digests lactose, after childhood. But in populations where milk became an important food source, genetic variants that keep lactase active into adulthood spread because they gave a nutritional advantage. This is a clear example of cultural and biological co-evolution.

Local dietary and physiological adaptations: Some Inuit groups have genetic traits that help process diets high in animal fats without the same cardiovascular risks seen elsewhere. The Turkana pastoralists in Kenya show genetic adaptations that help tolerate prolonged periods with little water, protecting kidney function under extreme aridity.

Infectious disease: Epidemics are powerful evolutionary forces. The 14th-century bubonic plague killed roughly one-third of Europe; survivors often carried genetic variants that conferred resistance, changing the population’s genetic makeup. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted both cultural (vaccination) and biological (genetic resistance) responses. Over time, such differences can shift how populations respond to future pathogens.

Bottom line

Humans have not stopped evolving. Our cultural innovations reshape the environments we inhabit — from diets to disease exposure to climate buffering — and those changing environments continue to favor some genetic variants over others. The processes and pressures may differ from those faced by ancient ancestors, but evolution remains an active force shaping human populations today.

Author: Michael A. Little, Binghamton University, State University of New York. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent organization that provides evidence-based analysis.

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