Nature and Culture in Human Evolution

Posted on Nov 6, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

Nature and Culture

In the actions we perform as human beings, we are part of nature. Some realities exist by themselves, not constructed by human action, while culture’s components result from learning. For example, feeding is a natural, biological action; all living beings instinctively eat. But cooking a meal or preparing a sauce are cultural actions, acquired and created by a particular group of humans and transmitted through learning.

Natural Behaviors:

Those where information has been transmitted genetically.

Cultural Behaviors:

Those we acquire through social learning. Biology distinguishes between genotype, which is innate, and phenotype, which is acquired throughout life. Both sciences of humankind result from the interaction between them.

Nature:

Is innate, something you’re born with because it is genetically preprogrammed or develops in the embryo and fetus.

Culture:

Is acquired through social learning from the moment we are born.

Paleontology is the science that studies the oldest remains of our ancestors, and Anthropology deals with the study of human groups, past and present, through their physical and cultural characteristics.

Origin of Life

The scientific community supports that the origin of life would be located approximately 3.6 billion years ago. Certain atmospheric conditions and geological features in the seas allowed the first single-celled creatures to live.

  • All living things have a common origin.
  • The development of life has been continuous, and evolution is a biological fact.
  • Homo sapiens originated from a primate mammal from which our species has evolved.

Evolution of Life

Evolution is the process by which individuals of a species undergo qualitative changes that slowly lead to beings and species changing from more primitive life forms into more organized ones.

Adaptation:

Changes that improve their conditions of survival in the environment they inhabit.

Inheritance:

Genetic transmission ensures these changes are passed on to descendants.

The theory that explains the scientific causes of species change is called the evolutionary theory. It began developing in the 18th century and is regarded as a second major scientific revolution.

Fixism

The dominant conception until the 19th century was fixism. According to this theory, species are:

  • Fixed and immutable since their inception.
  • Created by God, appearing in a divinely unique moment.
  • Individuals remain immutable from their creation; each species would have remained unchanged.
  • Isolated groups that do not derive from each other or are related.

Linnaeus, an important representative, defined the species as consisting of a certain number of individuals who are a sort of copy from an immutable model. He also established the first classification of animals and plants.

From a Philosophical Perspective:

  • Fixism is attached to the immutability of the essence of things; these fixed essences define each individual as it is.
  • Fixism involves a hierarchical conception of reality, according to which each individual in nature has its place.
  • There is something fixed and immutable with respect to human nature that is outside of the specific individuals who are born, grow, and die.
  • Man is the protagonist of creation.

Biological and metaphysical theories that saw nature as something static were in crisis in the 18th century, giving way to a conception of humankind and reality as a product of a constant process of change and transformation.

Evolutionary Theory

The first evolutionary theory is Lamarck’s transformational theory. According to this theory, nature forms a continuum in which species are not invariant but transform from each other following a trend toward more perfect forms.

For Lamarck, evolution is explained by the need for species to adapt to the environment in which they live, developing and adapting appropriate organs that transform the species.

Lamarck’s theory has flaws, such as the belief that characters developed during an individual’s life are transmitted to their offspring. However, he correctly identified the important role of environmental influence and, above all, made it clear that classes, orders, genera, and species are not just divisions of our minds but that all species are interrelated.

Charles Darwin completed the theory of evolution. His main thesis, “Common Origin of Species,” states that known species are related and all come from one or a few very simple primitive species.

  • “The struggle for survival”: All species tend to reproduce until they saturate their habitat. This situation leads to scarce resources and a fight for survival.
  • “Natural selection theory”: Only the fittest individuals obtain resources in a particular environment, tend to survive, and manage to reproduce. Biological evolution is well explained by natural selection.
  • The concept of “fittest” is not defined by racial considerations. The fittest is the one with the most favorable genetic mutation to adapt to a specific change in the environment.
  • “Heritage”: Survivors transmit advantageous genetic changes to their descendants, slowly changing and adapting better to their environment. This is natural selection.

Nature acts randomly and blindly: variations arise randomly. To be “the fittest” is not the strongest living being but the opposite: the fittest animals are those that adapt. According to Darwin, there is no purposefulness in nature, nor is there a predetermined or directed order.

Synthetic Theory of Evolution and Genetics:

Neither Lamarck nor Darwin could explain how the inheritance of new characters occurs. Later scientists, like Mendel (a contemporary of Darwin), developed the laws of genetic inheritance. The theory of the genetic unit of Darwinism leads to the so-called synthetic theory of evolution.

Human Evolution: Anthropogenesis

We are animals included in the order of primates. Within it, we belong to the family of hominids, which is included in the genus Homo, and within it, the species sapiens. We are Homo sapiens sapiens.

The Source:

The evolution of a species results from the interaction between the species and its environment. Dense forests were replaced by savanna. As a result of this change, primates were forced to leave their natural habitat and new characteristics, better adapted to the new environment, were consolidated. All these changes have had profound implications for human evolution, acting on two major areas: natural and cultural.

Natural Evolution: The Process of Hominization

Human beings could survive in an environment for which they were not biologically prepared because their bodies underwent transformations:

  1. Bipedalism: This form of movement brought about important anatomical adaptations. The need for survival favored the erect position, leading to a change in the foot’s structure. The toe became non-opposable, allowing support throughout the sole, which enabled walking and standing on two feet. The pelvis narrowed, requiring the spine’s modification into an S-shape to maintain balance and hold the head up. This increased the field of view and, therefore, information.
  2. Release of the hands: When the erect position became permanent, another change occurred: the release of the hands, which were no longer used for walking. This allowed the hands to perform technical functions. This was possible thanks to the opposable thumb, which allowed for delicate handprehension.
  3. In the upright position, hominids no longer needed to defend or attack with their mouths. This led to smaller jaws and an increase in the size and bulging of the skull. Teeth also fell out, facilitating movement and language, which is fundamental for the subsequent emergence of language. The enlargement of the skull is parallel to its increased capacity. The free, upright position of the hands facilitated the ability to manufacture and use instruments and, with it, brain capacity.

Appearance of Intelligence:

Intelligence comes from a genetic mutation that occurred in some individuals (humans) who could take advantage of such favorable mutations. Due to the anatomical, biochemical, and genetic changes that had taken place throughout biological development, hominids were the perfect animal to take advantage of that variation that occurred in our ancestors.

Cultural Evolution: The Process of Humanization

While physical changes occurred, so did cultural ones. These evolutionary changes were possible because the primate species from which we descend was not limited by fixed, instinctive behavior but had the ability to learn. Therefore, we are the result of the sum of biological and cultural evolution.

The characteristics, behaviors, and factors that favored the psychic and social evolution of human beings are diverse. The following five can be highlighted:

  • The game
  • The discovery of fire
  • Long learning
  • Occurrence of social behavior
  • Appearance of language

A. Hunting:

This activity expelled and encouraged the emergence of some key features of human nature.

  • The development of intellectual activities such as observation and intelligence. Humans had to be able to interpret signs and signals, thus stimulating their intellectual capacities.
  • Technical progress: Hunting led to the refinement and diversification of weapons and tools.
  • Social partnership and language: Hunting large or many small animals involved the cooperation of individuals and the sharing of tasks. This stimulated language development.

B. The Discovery of Fire:

At the social level, fire provides security and protection, aids in hunting, and defends against animals. On a philosophical level, fire was a fundamental change in feeding.

C. Long Learning:

A feature that characterizes human beings is their slow physical development, which has beneficial consequences:

  • Childhood and adolescence are very long periods in humans. They are specific periods of learning and socialization, where norms and cultural values are fixed in our brains.
  • Human beings have a special feature only seen in the offspring of other animals: the continuing need to explore the new.

D. The Appearance of Social Behavior:

Social character will develop basic social patterns of cooperation and assistance among group members.

  • Diversification of activities.
  • Emergence of different roles and social roles.

According to biologists like A. Portmann, human beings are born in a state of biological immaturity. There is no fixed human nature, and humans are not finished beings but will be building their own nature in relation to the social and cultural forms in which they are born, learn, and live.

E. The Emergence of Language:

The decisive step in the humanization process was the emergence of language, as it allowed thinking, planning, and reasoning actions. Possibly, the increasing complexity of human behavior developed the need to issue guidance gestures and cries of behavior. Subsequently, speech developed, whose primary function is primarily social. This process probably involved the slow evolution of complex biological changes in the vocal tract.

Developments in Cultural and Biological Evolution

Cultural evolution has overcome biological evolution to the point that cultural transformations could be causing changes in the human body. While biological evolution is slow, cultural changes are very rapid and occur through social learning, which can be easily integrated from one generation to another. For this reason, cultural development is critical to the successful evolution of our species.

1. Culture:

Two meanings of culture:

  1. Culture as knowledge and skills (receiving education).
  2. Culture as any activity of the human being.

Culture is assimilated to knowledge; in this sense, we say if a person is educated or uneducated. There is another meaning to the term culture. For anthropologists, sociologists, and other scientists, culture is all the activities, knowledge, procedures, values, and ideas generated and transmitted through social learning. In the anthropological sense, all people are educated.

A. Functions of Culture:

When we compare humans with other animal species, we realize our many biological disadvantages. But compared to other animal species, we have a fundamental advantage: culture. Culture has allowed the species to:

  • Replace its shortcomings as an animal to defend itself in a natural environment, thus preventing the extinction of the species.
  • Adapt to the environment, both natural and social, by modifying it.

B. Cultural Elements:

What we learn, what we acquire, consciously and unconsciously, is culture. That is, knowledge, behavior patterns, and ways of thinking that will be helpful to live within the society in which we are born. This culture has content that can be of two kinds:

  • Material culture: Physical cultural elements artificially produced by humans.
  • Intangible culture: Elements related to modes of thinking, knowledge, feelings, attitudes, etc.

C. Culture and Society:

A culture is a set of beliefs, values, activities, and behavioral patterns shared and transmitted by a group of individuals. A society is a system of interrelations between individuals.

Individual and Society

Language is the expression of our thoughts. We can only learn through our relationships with others. When we incorporate the cultural elements of a given society, we are not simply snapping them into empty molds but adapting them to our personality, interests, and needs. This is known as socialization and is the origin of our individuality and freedom. We can say that each of us has a personal and social double identity.