Psychologist ponders: Is ‘The Cultural Animal’ free?
Psychology these days is a battlefield between those who emphasize nature and those who emphasize culture. Evolutionary psychologists — scientists who study the biological basis for human behaviors and preferences — report the similarities between humans and other animals. The cultural psychologists focus on specific differences between cultures.
These two sides are not the full story, although they have yielded many insights. It helps to examine evolutionary differences: how humans and animals are different. Likewise, it is valuable to consider cultural similarities. What factors are common to cultures?
I argue that those two — evolutionary differences and cultural similarities — are linked. The key to understanding human nature and human psychology is in that link. If we grasp what’s common to humans across cultures and yet different from what’s observed in other animals, we will have put our finger on precisely what makes us human.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 1 Jun 2005
