Re: evolution everywhere?
Shannon Adams (shannon_adams@byu.edu)
Tue, 10 Sep 1996 08:30:26 -0700
Bryant wrote:
>
> In article <3234ADC8.3240@byu.edu>,
> Shannon Adams <shannon_adams@byu.edu> wrote:
>
> >> Gerold wrote:
> >> 1. Evolutionary perspectives provide greater explanatory and
> >> predictive power in understanding human culture than pure narrative
> >> modes,
>
> >I really got a good laugh when I read Gerold's first sentence of number one.
> > I really don't think anyone has been able to *predict* how a culture will
> >change.
>
> The comparative method allows predictions about the distributions of
> traits (be they biological adaptations or elements of culture). This is
> clearly the sort of prediction Gerold refers to.
>
That's my point, (I think ;). I don't believe you can predict the
distribution of a trait/cultural element. How could someone 3000 years ago
predict the distribution of platonism/aristolian logic/even
christianity/Judaism? Like I said, looking backward we can see how each of
the cultural elements spread, but I seriously doubt anyone could predict
them. Like I said before, I personally, and I thought anthropology at large,
is not about *predicting*
> It seems to be normal human behavior to laughingly dismiss novel ideas.
>
> Just out of high school, I found the notion that the epidemeology of
> some diseases could be reconstructed from 400 year old bones laughable.
>
Thanks for the patronage. It's good to feel young again ;)
> >This also could be an incredibly naive
> >question but What about free choice? I think that element of human
> >motivation cannot be ignored.
>
> Proximal motivations (for example, emotions) should not be ignored, I agree.
> They are themselves phenomena deserving study. How do you perceive
> biologists ignoring decisional processes?
>
Again, this could be incredibly naive, but where does the choice/reaction of
the individual (not the individual as a representation of a group pattern)
fit into evolution (especially social evolution)? I thought that in
evolution we were all being molded, for lack of a better word, into a being
that is most fit to exist in whatever environment we exist? Is that wrong?
> >Shannon
>
> Bryant
Shannon
|