+- Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum (https://www.scivillage.com)
+-- Forum: Science (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-61.html)
+--- Forum: Alternative Theories (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-130.html)
+--- Thread: Evolution didn't make us human, culture did (/thread-13370.html)
Evolution didn't make us human, culture did - C C - Dec 17, 2022
https://iai.tv/articles/evolution-didnt-make-us-human-culture-did-auid-2336?_auid=2020
INTRO: In many ways, Homo Sapiens is a very successful species, a lot more so than our ancestors. The usual story about why we are more successful is that biological evolution resulted in us having more enhanced neural hardware. But that story doesn’t add up chronologically. If we look closer, what we see is that it was the cultural institution of religion, and its ability to create large tribes, that made us into modern humans, argue Victor Kumar and Richmond Campbell.
EXCERPT: . . . This new period of human history that started around 100,000 years ago witnessed an eruption of imaginative technological innovation. Sapiens were able to make the journey to Australia and other remote islands because they invented sea-worthy vessels and taught themselves the skills to pilot them. They endured in Northern Eurasia and other cold climates through craft. Instead of simply covering themselves with animal pelts as Neanderthals did, our ancestors used sewing needles to produce seamed clothing, which offered more reliable protection from the elements. Large, menacing animals were hunted more safely and effectively using spears, spear-throwers, and bows and arrows. Doubtlessly, these weapons were wielded against other humans too.
To create and operate all of their state-of-the-art technology, our ancestors needed a wealth of brand-new ecological and technical knowledge. Only a small portion of their cognitive and technological achievements can be reconstructed from the archaeological record. But behaviorally modern humans knew how to make tents and other fortified structures, woven baskets, fire hearths, oil lamps, specialized tools for refining their constructions, and much, much more. With clever inventions such as these, Sapiens colonized the world and cleared it out.
So, how did Sapiens become behaviorally modern? How did they become so knowledgeable and technologically inventive? We propose an answer to this puzzle in our book A Better Ape. Building on a large body of interdisciplinary research, we appeal to a theory about the cultural evolution of tribes, institutions, and religious morality. To grasp this theory and its significance, it will help to understand theories that appeal to biological evolution and why they fail... (MORE - missing details)
Victor Kumar - A Better Ape: The Evolution of the Moral Mind and How it Made us Human ... https://youtu.be/dOlWZQjZ0XU
RE: Evolution didn't make us human, culture did - confused2 - Dec 18, 2022
Consider an uncultured person skinning a moose. Do you start at the nose, tail, feet or in the middle? Once you've found a way that works you're probably going to stop looking for better (potentially worse) ways to do it. Once you've got the culture of 'snip here, zzzzzzip there, don't eat that bit' and so on, it is quicker and easier to skin moose(s). Even better if someone else does it. The smartness previously developed to skin moose(s) can now be devoted to art, science and politics.
RE: Evolution didn't make us human, culture did - Magical Realist - Dec 21, 2022
The brain is the hardware. Culture is the software. Just as a computer is useless without installed software, so are we too without culture. It is all the stuff we need to know and understand to live in the world. All the values and facts and know how and mores and rules and modes of citizenship that are necessary to fit into and thrive within or even outside of our tribe.