Heiner Mühlmann, La natura delle culture: bozza di una teoria genetica della cultura, a cura di Gianluca Bonaiuti; con una postfazione di Gianluca Bonaiuti e Antonio Lucci (Milano-Udine: Mimesis, 2023).

Abstract

This is a review of the book written by Heiner Muhlmann: The Nature of Cultures: A Blueprint for a Theory of Culture Genetics, published for the first time in 1996. My analysis refers to the second edition of the text, which was made public in 2023. 
The written outlines a genetic theory of culture which examines the dynamics of its genesis under various perspectives that covers areas of biological and scientific relevance, according to an historical-sociological framework. 
The outcome is a cyclical and iterative model structured in 5 phases that first analyze the local rules that set up the cultures and their inheritance; then, the physiologically-determined dynamics that trigger their development and lead to the emergence of a new cultural constitution. This is a cyclical pattern.
Muhlmann’s study shows how Cultures is an active and warlike system that "generates war and which is generated through war"(pg. 7), the evolution of which is associated with the genetic transmission of traits between generations. 
It is a current reading that reflects the drama of contemporary reality, where the cruelty of cultures seems to leave no room for any form of humanity. 
In all of this, do human beings hold the key to all of this atrocity?