Our biology has given us the basic drives of social mammals. Evidently we need
food, drink and shelter. But with our bellies full we are driven by social needs as well. I use the
acronym SAND for them:
 | sex (taboo, but without this drive, we would not have been so numerous...) |
| affiliation: having friends, feeling loved |
| novelty, but not too much |
| dominance: being admired, esteemed, powerful |
Options for gratification of these needs, in particular dominance, are
in short supply. As a result there is competition. Like other social
mammals we have unwritten rules about when, how and with whom it is OK to seek
gratification of needs.
But we are not just driven by genes. Humans live in
large, interlacing social groups of symbolically marked individuals. We have
symbolic identities, and in this regard our inter-group variety is much
larger than it is for our genetic make-up. Genetically there is just one
human race. But different societies have found different sets of
rules: different cultures. The
evolution of these cultures is a current frontier of science. Crossing that
frontier will require interdisciplinary cooperation. I intend to do my best
to contribute. |
|
Do I hear the word
'rational'? Hah! That just means trying to get to the top of the dominance
hierarchy... |
