The talking snake
H
uman behaviour is
determined by the culture in which someone grew up, but also by the biology of our species. These
are not two separated domains; both influences are always and simultaneously
present, often without our being able to precisely distinguish them.
For as long as humans have existed - and long before that - poisonous snakes have been an important cause of death. In almost all cultures snakes play an important role. Sometimes they are seen as gods or messengers of gods or of the devil, sometimes as demons. In the story of the Garden of Eden in the Bible it’s a talking snake which seduces Eva to evil. This has made the snake forever the symbol of the Fall in Jewish and later also in the Christian culture. Similar images are to be found in other cultures. Humans (and chimpanzees) that have never seen a snake are instinctively afraid of them. In dreams snakes often play a role.
How far are the genes (‘instinct’) responsible for our fear of snakes and how far is it a cultural phenomenon? Has natural selection happened to humans who were sufficiently afraid of snakes or to cultures where this fear was cultivated?
Don’t draw
the conclusion from this that there is a ‘gene for fear of snakes’. That there
is a genetic basis for behaviour has become clear, but in what way genes
influence behaviour is not clear.
 |
|
Nezahualcoyotl (1402 - 1472), king of Texcoco. The representation of this Aztec is located in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The clothing of the Aztecs before the Spaniards conquered Mexico was not so very exotic, although the cultures of Spain and Mexico could never have influenced each other beforehand. |
Memes
Conversely it could be that our biological
evolution has been speeded up by cultural evolution, for example of language,
or of altruistic behaviour: clans which could communicate or which had strong
social coherence through their altruism had a greater chance of survival, but
these characteristics were related to characteristics of the brain. There are
even indications that there is a centre in the brain related to spirituality
(see Trouw of 8th June 2000).
That human culture in some or other way is based on the way we are structured also appears from the ‘experiment’ of the New World.
When the first people landed in America via Alaska, they were still nomadic hunters and gatherers who subsequently spread themselves over the whole western hemisphere and adjusted themselves to the local environment.
When the Europeans after Columbus made contact with the different cultures present there, it appeared that highly developed cultures existed which were on the one hand strange but on the other possessed many recognisable elements: grain (maize) and vegetables were raised, earthenware pottery, metallic adornments and weapons were manufactured, people clothed themselves in woven materials and there was an hereditary nobility; kings and priests ruled the lives of ordinary people. Archaeological research in our times confirms this.
It appears that there is a basic pattern in our brains by means of which people have the tendency to experience certain social and technical developments.
One of the most important memes is of course language. Most likely it is the most important. This is a story which shows that language could be much older than people usually think and that language could have played a large role in the development of humans, not after we became humans, but before!
What is not mentioned in this article is that relationships can be shown - with genealogy and all - between all languages; thus language must have been well-developed before the migrations to America and Australia, and this most likely occurred earlier than was suspected until recently.
door
 drs. L.E. Pihlajamaa- Glimmerveen |
Nederlandse versie: klik hier.