> But are those traits behavioral, or are they the mechanism that give rise to flexible behavior? I don’t know what you mean here. The specific traits mentione

> But are those traits behavioral, or are they the mechanism that give rise to flexible behavior? I don’t know what you mean here. The specific traits mentioned (building muscle past the point of attractiveness, climbing deadly mountains)? Traits in general? Something else? > Imagine saying that linguistic components are naturally selected for in the genome. It's the wrong level. Language happens at the level of brains and societies, not genes. It’s not the wrong level. From what we can tell, other animals are literally incapable of complex language. That’s genetic. Language traits literally have been selected for in the human genome. We have a brain that can process language and a tongue structure capable of making complex sounds that other animals can’t apparently replicate. Certainly language also has environmental/societal components. But it’s inaccurate to say that it’s not also genetic. Unless you mean that literal languages are not genetic, in which case, sure. There’s nothing in the human genome that encodes English. There’s also nothing in the human genome that encodes the taste for yogurt, or the drive to be the fastest runner, or the Catholic wedding ceremony. And yet genetic components still certainly underly those in a meaningful way. It’s worthwhile understanding the genetic components even if they cannot explain the entire phenomenon.