Reincarnation is of secondary importance to buddhism, and indeed it gives the impression of a "bolted on" feature that was added later on to, presumably, satisfy the masses.

The most strict interpretations of the buddhist doctrine actually posit the unreality of reincarnation.

(n.b.: I am not a buddhist)

I dont view reincarnation as "me" waking up in some other body in some other time; IMHO it has to be on a gene level, "me" is just a bunch of genes wich have learned and contribute to the general pool. Or something like that.

Well, then anything adaptive is "reincarnation." You might as well just call it "adaptation," then, instead of redefining another word.

Thats it, i normally dont say "reincarnation". It seems to me that words like that were used to make graspable a concept thats hard to grasp; but it lost its sense when someboy tried to hard to make it fit in some view of things.

Edit: It can also be called Evolution.