This is fascinating. To imagine how our species slowly developed culture, how it opened up new perspectives on the world through culture is just breathtaking. 

Some argue that evolutionary studies of culture reduce culture, reduce what we hold dear to a lower level of reality. To me, that is not necessarily true. When I study literature on evolutionary psychology, dual inheritance, etc, I read between the lines of methodological reductionism to discover an ontology of connectedness, both on a historical level (we are part of the history of life on this planet) and an ecological level (we are part of the global ecosystem).

It takes hard work to understand that ontology, and I'm still only scratching the surface. But sometimes, for instance when reading Annalee Newitz' blogpost on io9, I just pause and stand in awe for "the grandeur in this view of life"...