Culture can be defined as many things, but it is never a static entity; it changes and evolves over time and across generations. This is not to say that all cultures adapt well or that all adaptations are beneficial. This article will briefly discuss cultural adaptation and its effects. Miller et al. (2010) defines culture as the beliefs learned and shared by people (p.4). However, culture can also be said to be the cumulative knowledge of a people, such as the use of fire technology by the natives of northern Alberta and northern Australia, as described by Lewis (1989). In both cases fire was used as a tool to increase people's ability to survive in an environment, without which survival would have been much more difficult or perhaps impossible. The knowledge of how to effectively wield the fire tool was not that of just one individual, it was knowledge held by multiple people within the society. It was also a knowledge that did not come into existence suddenly and completely; it has been learned and enriched over time and generations by individuals and their experiences. In other words, it has been adapted and evolved in response to changes in the environment and cumulative knowledge of the culture. “Culture allows for the relatively rapid accumulation of improved strategies for exploiting the local environment” (Boyd and Richerson, p.16) and the use of fire technology is just one example of how cultures adapt to their environments and increase their cumulative knowledge. Another example would be the adaptation of Chinampas agriculture by the Aztecs, which transformed them from a small tribe exiled on a few islands in a lake, into an empire that survived for centuries and covered much of what is now modern Mexico (Coe, 1964). .Culture a...... middle of the document ......1): 90-98.DOI:10.1038/scientificamerican0764-90. [online]Diamond, J. 2008, October. Jared Diamond: Why do societies collapse? [Video file] Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jared_diamond_on_why_societies_collapse.htm Fegan, Brian. 2003. “Plundering the Seas.” Inside Indonesia 73: Jan - Mar 2003: Retrieved from: http://www.insideindonesia.org/feature-editions/plundering-the-sea Lewis, Henry T. 1989. “A Parable of Fire: Hunter-Gatherers in Canada and Australia." Traditional ecological knowledge: a collection of essays, pp. 11-19; 77-77. R. E. Johannes, ed. Cambridge, UK: IUCN Publishing Services. [PDF] Retrieved from: http://wcs.lms.athabascau.ca/file.php/106/PDFs/ANTH275_Lewis_1989.pdfMiller, Barbara D., & Penny Van Esterik, & John Van Esterik Canadian edition Toronto: Pearson Education Canada Inc.