Chapter 2: Culture and Nature
NATURE, NURTURE AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
THE SOCIAL BRAIN
Evolutionary anthropologist: Robin Dunbar
Bigger brains were linked to having larger & more complex social groups.
Small-brained animals tend to live alone or in small, simple groups, whereas bigger-brained,
presumably, smarter animals have more relationships with each other & more complicated
groups.
People with bigger social networks have been found to be bigger in some key brain parts,
notably the orbital prefrontal cortex.
It evolved mainly to enable human beings to have rich, complex social lives.
CULTURE AND HUMAN SOCIAL LIFE
SOCIAL ANIMAL OR CULTURAL ANIMAL?
Elliot Aronson
By calling people social animals, these thinkers are saying that people seek connections to
others and prefer to live, work and play together with other people.
Humans = cultural animals
Evolution shaped human psyche so as to enable humans to create and take part in culture.
All humans use culture every day & depend on it for survival
o Culture = essence of what makes us human.
CULTURE DEFINED
Social scientists use the term to refer to what a large group of people have in common.
Important thing about culture:
Is that it is a kind of social system.
Culture = advanced way of being social.
, IMPORTAN FEATURES OF CULTURE:
SHARED IDEAS Culture enables you to interact with people you have never
met before.
Just because you belong to the same culture, you have
enough in common that you can do things together.
If culture is an important part of what humans involved to
do, then we would expect the human brain to be strongly
oriented toward shared ideas.
The human brain is aware of shared ideas.
Emotions intensified just by seeing something & knowing
that another member of your group is sharing the
experience.
CULTURE AS A SOCIAL Culture exists as a network linking many different people.
SYSTEM Culture connects many people together & exists in what
they share.
The problem with the idea of ‘network’ = it doesn’t
sufficiently capture the dynamic aspect of culture.
Culture never sits still.
Culture = system consisting of many moving parts that work
together.
CULTURE AS PRAXIS Praxis = practical ways of doing things.
Depends on shared ideas.
CULTURE, INFORMATION Culture = based on meaningful information.
& MEANING All cultures use language to encode & share information.
People act as they do because they process this
information.
People change their behaviour based on information they
get from culture.
As cultural animals, humans find meaning through
connecting with others.
NATURE & CULTURE INTERACTING
Nature & culture shapes each other
cultures classified along a spectrum:
Individualism Everyone takes care of him/herself & is free to choose how to act.
(low disease
environment)
Collectivism Maintaining relationships & getting along with others is more important than
doing what you want. Collectivistic cultures tend to be found in places with
many pathogens.
NATURE, NURTURE AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
THE SOCIAL BRAIN
Evolutionary anthropologist: Robin Dunbar
Bigger brains were linked to having larger & more complex social groups.
Small-brained animals tend to live alone or in small, simple groups, whereas bigger-brained,
presumably, smarter animals have more relationships with each other & more complicated
groups.
People with bigger social networks have been found to be bigger in some key brain parts,
notably the orbital prefrontal cortex.
It evolved mainly to enable human beings to have rich, complex social lives.
CULTURE AND HUMAN SOCIAL LIFE
SOCIAL ANIMAL OR CULTURAL ANIMAL?
Elliot Aronson
By calling people social animals, these thinkers are saying that people seek connections to
others and prefer to live, work and play together with other people.
Humans = cultural animals
Evolution shaped human psyche so as to enable humans to create and take part in culture.
All humans use culture every day & depend on it for survival
o Culture = essence of what makes us human.
CULTURE DEFINED
Social scientists use the term to refer to what a large group of people have in common.
Important thing about culture:
Is that it is a kind of social system.
Culture = advanced way of being social.
, IMPORTAN FEATURES OF CULTURE:
SHARED IDEAS Culture enables you to interact with people you have never
met before.
Just because you belong to the same culture, you have
enough in common that you can do things together.
If culture is an important part of what humans involved to
do, then we would expect the human brain to be strongly
oriented toward shared ideas.
The human brain is aware of shared ideas.
Emotions intensified just by seeing something & knowing
that another member of your group is sharing the
experience.
CULTURE AS A SOCIAL Culture exists as a network linking many different people.
SYSTEM Culture connects many people together & exists in what
they share.
The problem with the idea of ‘network’ = it doesn’t
sufficiently capture the dynamic aspect of culture.
Culture never sits still.
Culture = system consisting of many moving parts that work
together.
CULTURE AS PRAXIS Praxis = practical ways of doing things.
Depends on shared ideas.
CULTURE, INFORMATION Culture = based on meaningful information.
& MEANING All cultures use language to encode & share information.
People act as they do because they process this
information.
People change their behaviour based on information they
get from culture.
As cultural animals, humans find meaning through
connecting with others.
NATURE & CULTURE INTERACTING
Nature & culture shapes each other
cultures classified along a spectrum:
Individualism Everyone takes care of him/herself & is free to choose how to act.
(low disease
environment)
Collectivism Maintaining relationships & getting along with others is more important than
doing what you want. Collectivistic cultures tend to be found in places with
many pathogens.
