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Re: Definition of Culture
Jesse S. Cook III (jcook@AWOD.COM)
Sat, 17 Aug 1996 07:51:34 -0400
On 16 August 1996, Ronald Kephart replied:
>In message <34960816124043/0002019573DC2EM@MCIMAIL.COM> J Cook writes:
>
>> Learning to survive is essential to all animals. The nonhuman ones do
>> it by imitation.
>
>Jesse,
>
>Do you mean to say that humans don't learn by imitation? I feel sure that you
>don't, and yet I also feel that I have to keep pressing on the issue of too
>neatly separating humans from other animals, which seems to be a recurring
theme
>in yur posts.
As long as you "keep pressing on the issue of [not] separating humans from
other animals", I will keep pressing the opposite to provide a balance.
The separation, in most cases, *is* "neat". We feed, fight, flee, and f...
as they do; but, except for the last, any resemblance between how they do it
and how we do it is purely coincidental. And any resemblance between when
and where we do the last is also purely coincidental.
I think I know why you, and others, are so insistent on blurring the
distinction: you think it is the "in thing". And, maybe, it is, but it is a
"dead horse". The Genesis view of "Man" has not been tenable since 1859.
And I would say that the vast majority of educated people would agree that
it isn't.
So, John, by all means lecture your students on this subject, but give the
rest of us a break. Ok?
Jesse S. Cook III E-Mail: jcook@awod.com
Post Office Box 40984 or
Charleston, SC 29485 USA 201-9573@mcimail.com
"Our attitude toward others is not determined by who *they* are;
it is determined by who *we* are."
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