We moderns are the result of tribal evolution.
I think that there is a process in the functioning of human tribes that resembles Darwinian evolution with species. I'm not aware of much study that has been done along these lines.
I have observed many tribal groups in Central America,the MiddleEast, Africa and India and it appears to me that they have evolved very different social mechanisms for survival. These mechanisms are very durable and persist over hundreds of generations. They are not based on genes, they are not species.
Tribes do grow and become dominant and they do disappear on a regular basis when their enemies destroy them or absorb them.
What is a tribe? It is a group of people, usually genetically related, that have well established living patterns usually acclimated to a specific environmental niche.
As environmental niches vary, tribes expand and contract; dominate and disappear.
Tribes have behavioral patterns that have been well studied by anthropologists. The patterns deal with family structure, child rearing, management of resources, technical skills and much more.
What appears to me, is that in some parts of the world particular tribes have become dominant because their internal mechanisms gave them robust facility for dealing with their environment and their neighbors.
The Yayoi Japanese came to dominate an archipelago and were extremely capable of adapting to modernity; they had a meritocratic family adoption system. The Han in China came to dominate all of their surrounding tribes and ultimately became such a powerful central government that they have become important world players. They used meritocratic testing systems. I can't say much about India because I don't understand Indian tribal structure.
In northern Europe, one particular tribe, the Germanic, came to dominate all of northern Europe where they still are the dominant tribe. In the instances where that tribe settle in new lands, Iceland, Greenland, England they had an internal structure that rewarded meritocracy. The Germanic tribes (Vikings) had extraordinary skills in dealing with trade and commerce and most importantly provided for social stability at levels never before seen. Their ability to absorb conquered tribes was their greatest tribal survival attribute. It still is.
After creating the modern world, the Germanic tribes in Holland transferred their commercial and governance competence to England and ultimately created the most powerful force in the modern world.... in America. We Americans are truly still one tribe with extraordinary ability to assimilate others into our tribe.