
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922. Excerpt:... CHAPTER IV INSTINCT AND CULTURE In Chapter III, I referred to the claims of many writers that our culture and institutions are rooted in and shaped by our store of innate tendencies and capacities, and to the claims of another group of writers that institutions and culture should be but are not. It was the latter position that I examined in the foregoing chapter. I now wish to examine the claim that our culture, institutions, and customs are rooted in and determined by our innate tendencies. If this claim is true, then it should follow that the culture of the same race should show striking similarities, and cultural changes should be very slow--since original nature is supposed to vary little, if any, over long periods of time. On the other hand, if, as I have suggested, the behavior and desires of an individual are determined by the relation he sustains to his environment, it should follow that the many variable factors that go to make one's desires and activities should bring about such a variety of customs and institutions that they cannot be regarded as rooted in or determined by any factor supposed to be common to all of them. Under this last view there is no difficulty in accounting for sudden variations in customs or moral ideas, nor in accounting for wide variations of culture found in the same race. The most casual observation of human behavior and of customs and institutions reveals wide discrepancies. Any explanation of adult behavior must, therefore, give some account of the great discrepancies in the likes and dislikes of man for the same object, for the great diversity of moral ideas and sentiments, and the variety of customs, taboos, institutions, and social organizations. These facts must be accounted for. The question is: To what extent c...
Page Count:
142
Publication Date:
2012-02-01
ISBN-10:
1458936198
ISBN-13:
9781458936196
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