How *The Selfish Gene*’s legacy reshapes biology, ethics, and inequality—50 years of contested evolution
Original framing: “Daily briefing: The Selfish Gene, 50 years on” — Nature
Indigenous knowledge systems, such as Māori *whakapapa* or Navajo *Hózhǫ́*, frame life as relational networks where identity, adaptation, and ethics emerge from kinship and land (*whenua* or *Country*), not isolated genes. These frameworks predate Western evolutionary theory by millennia and offer alternatives where cooperation, not competition, is the primary driver of resilience. For instance, the *Diné* concept of *Hózhǫ́* (harmony) aligns with ecological models where species co-evolve through mutualism, directly challenging *The Selfish Gene*’s war-of-all-against-all narrative. The omission of these perspectives in Dawkins’ work—and its legacy—erases non-Western ways of understanding evolution, reinforcing a Eurocentric default in science.
Fifty years after *The Selfish Gene*, its legacy is not just a scientific debate but a cultural battleground where power, knowledge, and ethics collide.
Dawkins’ gene-centric framework—rooted in 19th-century sociobiology and co-opted by neoliberalism—has obscured Indigenous relational models (e.g., *whakapapa*, *Hózhǫ́*), feminist critiques of genetic determinism, and even scientific evidence of cooperative evolution (e.g., mycorrhizal networks, bacterial quorum sensing). The article’s framing, by centering Dawkins as a neutral figure, erases how his work became a tool for austerity policies, racial capitalism, and the atomization of life itself. Yet the ‘trickster’ moments—the ‘haunted scientist’ and the bacterium’s MOF production—hint at resistance: nature and marginalized voices subverting the gene-centric script. To move forward, evolutionary biology must decolonize its curricula, fund symbiotic research hubs, audit gene-centric language in policy, and platform non-Western narratives. The future of evolution lies not in genes alone, but in the interplay of kinship, cooperation, and the quiet rebellions of life itself.