Understanding Cultural Interactions

Culture is a body of learned behaviors and values of a society that shape behavior and consciousness. A practice may be considered cultural if it is widespread or spans about 4 generations. Culture can develop from shared religious views, within a race or geographic location, but doesn't always have to.

We can use the United States as an example. People of the U.S. are viewed as freedom loving, apple pie eating, 4th of July celebrating, Bill of Rights hugging, God fearing, flag waving Americans. Yet within this title of "Americans," there are variations. Being considered an American does not mean that you are of a particular race, that you speak Americanized English or that you were even born in the States. As well, in the U.S., as with many other countries, there are many different regions and varieties of people associated with them.

Cultures have the ability and often do change. Previously, cultures may have been influenced by invasion or traders bringing products from foreign lands. In modern times, economic, political, etc. ties between nations aid in the spreading of ideas. Sometimes this cultural exchange is called "progress," yet this statement is unfair. To say that thanks to ties with the U.S., many countries are making "progress" through taking our advances and making them their own, is stating that other countries are lacking in some way or another and could make "progress" by becoming more like us.

To state that the world is moving towards a global culture would appear to be a stretch. The peoples of the world (mainly Eurasia and Africa) have known of each other and have been trading goods and ideas for many centuries. During this time empires rose to power seeming like they could take over the world, yet they eventually fell. Despite being taken over, nations retain pieces of their identity, at times their language, traditions and religion. Could the world create a global culture that was not specifically of a superpower? Even if the all of the people agreed to let go of their culture/heritage/language/religion/traditions/ideas of government/etc and adopt another more worldly culture, there would more than likely still be divisions. To imagine this creation of a global culture working is difficult. If everyone was the same in thought then there may be a move towards more equality, understanding, fewer differences, it is difficult to say.

To make a person more acceptable in a vast array of cultural settings I would think that knowledge of many culture's nonverbal communication traits would be of the utmost advantage. Body language can tell so much about what a person is thinking without having to say a word such as being able to show respect or graciousness without having to master all of the languages. This way even if you do not know all about the culture you do not appear rude.

Debating Cultural Differences: The Last 13,000 Years

In his writing, Diamond expresses his belief that cultures have developed and vary due to their geologic location. Diamond questions why the Eurasians became the conquerers and the Americans were conquered. From his writing, it would appear that Eurasia held the upper hand due to size (population wise as well as general landmass) and agriculturally.

Diamond raises an interesting point in the fact that Eurasia stretches East to West while the Americas stretch North to South. What does this have to do with development of civilizations I wondered? More than I had ever taken time to conclude. A continent thats mass stretches longitudinally would have a climate that did not vary as much as one that stretched almost from pole to pole. Plants and animals that can survive on the Atlantic Coast of Eurasia are likely to flourish on the Pacific. Yet the Americas have such varying temperatures stretching along their length that it is unlikely that a species (aside from humans with our reasoning and adaptation according to prompt 1) could survive the spectrum of climates. So, if a continent has a more average climate throughout, then plants and animals could move more freely within that area.

Diamond draws the conclusion that when food (plants and animals) can be domesticated and thus controlled, civilization will be soon to follow. Civilization brings sedentary lifestyles which brings about people specializing in one particular craft, etc. Although it is noted that with civilization comes disease, human to human as well as animal to human. This pattern began earlier in Eurasia than the Americas because civilization began there in Mesopotamia. Due to the fact that societal relationships began earlier in Eurasia, the people began building genetic immunities. Therefore when the conquistadors arrived in the Caribbean they were unknowingly starting a pandemic that would wipe out nearly 90% of the native population.

Blaunt's main criticism of Diamond's conclusion is that it is Eurocentric. Diamond's theory did not take into account the greatly varying topography of Eurasia. Although there may be a large continent stretching from east to west within a shorter expanse of longitude lines, Diamond did not recognize the great variances in climate. Olives may grow on the Mediterranean coast yet it would be difficult to find them in Siberia, as is true with many other species that have made adaptations to particular climates. It also seems that Blaunt believes that Mesopotamia was not this great starting point for civilization and culture that Diamond thinks it was. Diamond found the fertile cresent to be a spring board for greater civilizations such as the Greeks but Blaunt points out that the Chinese were doing the same if not exceeding the work of these European nations, just under differing circumstances.

Diamond's theory of geography is fascinating but makes sense only in a 2-D world that does not take all variables into consideration. Climate on the plains will be vary greatly from the climate in the mountains as climate on one coast will vary from that on another and neither one will be anything like the desert.

The Evolution, Migration and Diversification of Human Cultures

200 million years ago the Earth's continents came together to form one large supercontinent known as Pangea. Evidence of Pangea can been seen in the way that the continents appear to fit together as well evidence of similar species in the geologic record that would have been oceans apart if the continents had not come together. The supercontinent of Pangea brought all of the Earth's species together to compete and evolve. When the continent broke up 180 million years ago, these species were sent to separate corners of the planet to further evolve and adapt to changing continental conditions.

Being the Geology minor that I am:

The Hawaiian islands may not have had a direct role in Pangea or later supercontinents but they have their own unique geologic history. The big island of Hawaii sits over what is known as a "hot spot." This "hot spot" is a plume of magma that has found a way to the surface of the Pacific Plate. The oldest of the Hawaiian islands that we can visit is Kauai, although there are many older islands that lie below the ocean's surface. As the Pacific Plate has moved over the "hot spot," the chain has continued to grow reaching the youngest island of Hawaii. (The term "hot spot" is used loosely in geology because it is considered an anomaly of sorts and is not completely understood. )

The arrival of hominids is debatable but for this purpose we'll say between 100,000 and 40,000 years ago. In our readings, Crosby states that the difference between human evolution versus the evolution of other species is that humans did not have to wait for genetic changes to adapt to conditions. Other species depended on genetic adaptations to meet their needs while humans had the ability to reason and find immediate ways to adapt. There is no need to wait on the genetic lottery to bring a thick coat of fur when you can go kill a reindeer(or ancestor of a reindeer) and use it's coat. To quote Crosby, "Culture is a system of storing and altering patterns of behavior not in the molecules of the genetic code but in the cells of the brain."This adaptation, based not only on need but reasoning, can be considered a step toward creating cultures.

According to Crosby(although this is another debatable point), humans began migrating to Europe around 50,000 years ago, to Austrailia 40,000 years ago and to the Americas from 12-13,000 years ago. The people who migrated to the Americas were more so isolated than their cousins who remained on the larger landmass of Eurasia. Early humans followed herds of animals from Asia, over and through a glacier and into the Americas. When the ice age came to an end, these nomadic tribes were stranded on a new continent surrounded by the two largest oceans on the planet. Similar to when the continents came together and later drifted apart, these early humans had to learn to adapt to the conditions of the Americas.

Going with our history of adaptation, humans and their superior reasoning skills began to become craftsman in the Neolithic Era. Tools were ground and polished rather than chipped and experimentation with metals lead to stronger, longer lasting tools. What did this lead to? Civilization, a sedentary lifestyle, agriculture, writing, culture, etc.

Aloha!

Welcome to my Hawaii blog! Here I will share my thoughts and experiences (and pictures!) of the places that we visited.