Culture is the evolution of human society.

Culture is the strategic response to the survival needs of society. Evolutionary psychology would argue that culture is a direct outcome of reproductive success and biological fitness (Buss, 2001). People who can adapt to their environment through social organization are more likely to leave offspring and ensure continuity in the future. In the course of social development people have learned to solve a variety of issues and problems that allowed adaptation to a particular ecological context. In Greenland the Scandinavian colony eventually died out because they didn’t adapt to the harsh climate and the need to rely on the sea for food, but rather continued with their European herding practices and primitive agriculture. By contrast the local Inuit people continued to function and adapt without interruption as their food was largely available from hunting and fishing. The culture of the native Inuit population was adaptive leading to reproductive success and survival.

Population density affects culture in many ways. Social control is a problem in very densely populated societies like Singapore, and the response is frequently more hierarchical and authoritarian societies. Authoritarian cultures produce concomitant psychological functioning attributes that are useful to survival like conformity. Modern affluent societies have an impact on cultural values producing increased individualism. As a nation becomes more affluent there is less of a need to rely on other members of society thus contributing to the atomization of society. Affluence has produced new forms of communication in computer technology that do not depend on the physical presence of co-workers again reducing the need to rely on others or on face to face contacts.

Culture contribute to solving many social issues and problems including the development of leadership and group hierarchies, establishing territory for hunting or agriculture and protecting society against cultural competitors, establishing social bonds that ensure protection of children, and organizing the fight against the vicissitudes of the natural world (Buss, 2001). Many issues salient to survival must be addressed by a cultural group including proper housing, developing an economy, organizing transportation for trade and exchanges, developing a community to ensure continuity, and forming religion or science to deal with issues that are not understood by common sense. Biological needs essential for survival became part of the habitual traditions of the group and directly impacted the social motivation in society. In short culture is produced by the interaction between biological needs and social solutions. Authoritarian structures develop more likely in societies threatened with an inability to meet biological needs as rapid and decisive responses may be required in an unforgiving ecological environment.

Sociobiology is the field that establishes links between biological determinants and human behavior. The essential claim of sociobiology contends that biological laws are the foundation of all human behavior and explain also the development of culture. The prime goal of human groups is survival and culture is a means to that end. To survive and prosper requires resources including developing adequate food resources.

Cultural values also determine decisions about potential marital partners and culture has found successful ways to protect children until they achieve independence. The foundation of sociobiology is social Darwinism. The principle of natural selection ensured that humans that are ecologically fit are more likely to survive and leave offspring than people who are less adaptive. This idea has been summarized in the concept of survival of the fittest. The cultures that produce better adjustment to the environment are more likely to have their offspring survive compared to those less fit.

Competition in sociobiology is the key to the development of society and culture by favoring those traits that are most fit and contribute to survival. Over many generations it is believed that traits that favored survival became encoded genetically and eventually became the dominant behavior pattern in society. The culture of some societies favors individuals that show the initiative and curiosity essential for scientific progress. In other societies the harshness of the ecological environment produced authoritarian strong-men regimes, whereas in yet other cultures societies promoted survival through collectivism and cooperation. The tragedy of the 2011 Tsunami event in Japan demonstrated the ability of a collectivistic society to come together under even the most difficult conditions. Sociobiology makes the claim that significant social behavior has an evolutionary basis including such diverse manifestations as sexual preference, intelligence, cooperation and aggression.

The constant aim of human groups has been to improve survival so members of the culture may live in a better social environment with adequate food, health resources, and political democracies reflecting the will of the people. The Arab spring showed that the dictators of the world (particularly in the Middle East) did not promote a culture that met fundamental biological needs, nor the needs for decision participation by their citizens. These cultures were not “fit” from the evolutionary perspective of sociobiology and despite military oppression did not prosper in the past or will not survive in the long run future.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 815