4 - Hierarchy without the State
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2011
Summary
one thing that an informed discussion of human psychology and social life should avoid is drawing a sharp distinction between nature and nurture, between the realm of innate behaviors and that of socially constructed ones. It is wise to conceive human social behavior, just like that of any other social species, as taking place within a space that is constrained both by social cognition and social interaction, and not as alternately determined by one or the other. The transformation of social cognition described in Chapters 2 and 3 has significantly changed the space of human social behavior. This is not to say that nonhuman primates and other animals have no “culture.” Ethological research over the years has documented sufficient cultural variation among numerous species, such that talking about animal culture is no longer taboo. Yet the specific cognitive mechanisms that I have discussed bring us closer to uniquely human culture, at least as it is understood in mainstream social science. The ability to follow and enforce social norms, for instance, is at the center of most definitions of culture, as are our complex abilities for perspective taking and material symbolization discussed in Chapter 3.
The standard view in social science is that, once these cognitive abilities are in place, the gamut of possible variations in human behavior expands indefinitely. The evolution of human culture, it is said, becomes unpredictable. I think this idea is mostly correct. Even the most enthusiastic supporters of animal cultures do not deny humans' spectacular distinctiveness.
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- Information
- Human Evolution and the Origins of HierarchiesThe State of Nature, pp. 138 - 187Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010