Something I find myself thinking about every now and again is the concept of psychic unity. I took Anthropology 300: Anthropological Theory a couple of years ago as part of my Anthropology minor and one of the concepts we touched on was that of psychic unity. The theory of psychic unity basically states that all human beings, past, present, and future, are all linked through the same cognitive capability. If you were to, say, travel back in time to, I dunno, 3000 BCE, abduct a newborn, bring it to our current time, and raise it the same you would any other child, he or she would have absolutely no trouble in adapting to and learning from our complex culture and would develop like anyone else from our time period. This is predicated on the belief that all human beings, since we first split off from Homo erectus hundreds of thousands of years ago, are physiologically and cognitively the same, whether they be the Homo sapiens of 100,000 BCE, 3000 BCE, 1500 CE, 2013 CE, or whatever other time period from the past or future you may so choose at random, just so long as they are Homo sapiens. Evolution is an excruciatingly slow and gradual process, taking place over hundreds of thousands to millions of years. But this idea gets me thinking about whether or not all humans from all time periods are really just the same. I mean, people, on average, are much taller today than they were hundreds or thousands of years ago. Is that a product of human evolution? If we're taller than our ancestors, who's to say we're not more intelligent than them as well? Then you bring up the notion that measuring intelligence is a culturally specific and extremely biased process. Intelligence really depends on how successful you are within your own cultural context, with the more "intelligent" of us generally performing better than others in activities or tasks that are deemed important within said culture. If you were move from Canada to Papua New Guinea, intelligence would mean something completely different. Sure, you could have a PhD in Theoretical Physics from McGill (or wherever you can get a degree in that in Canada), but I dare say you'd look quite the fool in a tribal society that values the ability to hunt, coordinate, and manage resources when you demonstrate your complete lack of outdoorsy skills.
Of course, even thinking about general human intelligence throughout history is exceedingly complicated and almost a fruitless endeavour. Each generation of humans builds upon the discoveries made the previous one. Culture, society, technology, it's all just a building process. How can we accurately infer the intelligence of past peoples and cultures when they are so vastly different from what we have now? Because they are further back in human history with important discoveries yet to have been made and built, are they any less intelligent? Have we "evolved" into an organism that greatly resembles yet is fundamentally different from past people? Maybe, maybe not. I suppose if society were to collapse due to a zombie apocalypse, we'd likely revert to our pre-industrial ways. In a way, pre-industrial societies would seem more "intelligent" at first in that scenario, as the the first generation of survivors would be unlikely to function well if left to their own devices without the aid of the technology and government that the gifted among us have devised. Drop a group of First Nations people from before the European conquest of North America into a zombie apocalypse and I'd be willing to bet that they would higher rates of survival than people from our time. At least once guns and ammunition run out. I wonder, though, if education will advance to a point where even specific areas such as agriculture and survivalist material will be known by the common person? ... Probably not, given that it's not deemed important to the common man and that all those things are taken care of by a select few who keep society running smoothly. We're moving further away from education for raw survival into education for society and culture; a type of socially-based education. Not having to worry about meeting your own survival needs but being able to engage in higher levels of thinking because all those needs are already met. Kinda like Maslow's hierarchy of needs in a way, I suppose. But are we changing our genes by simply engaging in higher cognition? If so, then we may conclude that perhaps we have evolved past the baseline of intelligence of our ancestors. It's just hard to tell; there are just too many variables to consider.
Well, that'll about do it for tonight. Next time on Culture Grumps: totally gonna discuss the culture of education, or whatever (I've been watching a lot of Game Grumps lately, so I felt compelled to make a reference. It's super good. Like, you should totally watch it right now. http://www.youtube.com/user/GameGrumps. JonTron and Egoraptor are boss).
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Wat?
Here we go, post numero uno. Gonna be completely honest here: I have no idea what a blog really is or what it's purpose is supposed to be. All I'm certain of is that one is required as an assignment of sorts for my Cultural Psychology class and that I'm supposed to talk about my experiences and thoughts in relation to culture. Guess it's time to reopen the class syllabus and have a look-see.
Thinking about culture and how we're shaped by it is something that I've been doing long before I ever enrolled in this class, though likely never to the extent that is expected of me here. Developmental psychology is my preferred area of study within the field and the effects that culture has on child development is always something that intrigued me but I never bothered actually going out and conducting my own independent research. Culture and child development are intimately connected, as culture dictates what kind of a person a child develops into. It sets their interests, relationships, likes and dislikes, and whatever else you can think of. I've always considered myself to be a little more outside of contemporary culture than most people. I'm constantly observing other people's behaviour, thinking about why they behave the way they do, and how most people I observe tend to follow a more or less "cookie cutter" set of behaviour while out and about. I often forget that I am by no means the only person who thinks this way; in fact, I imagine most people do the same thing I do. I guess the main difference between and the general public is that while they can seamlessly interacts in all sorts of ways with all sorts of people while maintaining their observational nature, I kind of "sit outside" in a way. I find it difficult interacting with most people and when I do, I tend to think about what I'm doing and saying while I'm doing or saying it, often to the point where my behaviour comes across as awkward. Interpersonal interaction has never been my strong suit; I have few friends, though that's by choice, and I enjoy spending time by myself or with those close to me rather than spending time with groups of people. I have kind of a social anxiety thing going on, but it's been like that for as long I can remember so whatever. If I plan on going out with people, it's almost like I have to psych myself into it and prepare my "people face". It takes a lot of effort, haha. I just prefer spending time alone, with my family, and with my girlfriend. I suppose I see myself as slightly counterculture, which ironically is a culture in and of itself. Though not too counterculture, like hipsters or skinheads or whatever. Just kind of an outsider from the otherwise "normal" population.
While I see myself as an outsider from the culture we see outside everyday on the streets, in the workplace, and on campus, I do consider myself to belong to a number of sub-cultures. First and foremost, I consider myself belonging to the gamer culture; that is, I play a lot of video games. Like a lot. As in I practically eat, drink, and breathe Nintendo. Most of my free time is spent gaming, listening to video game music, and reading about video games. But besides gaming, I also consider myself somewhat well-versed in internet culture. And no, I'm not talking about Facebook, Reddit, 9GAG, or any of those craptastic bastardizations of supposed "internet culture" focused solely on the overproduction and oversaturation of memes. I'm certainly not deep web, hacker material or anything like that. As you can probably guess at this point, I'm a frequenter of 4chan. Yeah, I don't give a crap about Rules 1 and 2 (as if anyone has actually mentioned those since 2008) or that this blog isn't exactly anonymous. It's not like no one's heard of 4chan, anyway. It's like site number 5000 on the Alexa rankings, or whatever. Contrary to what I've been saying to this point, people like me who consider themselves outsiders actually do exist in great numbers and they congregate on sites like 4chan and other *chan sites. It's kind of like being an outsider of one culture makes you a part of another. No matter where you do or what you do, you're always part of some culture. Unless you literally grew up under a rock or in the woods alone. Which isn't very likely, considering that whole humans need other humans for survival thing. Besides gamer and internet culture, I also think of myself as slightly belonging to the japanophile or "weeaboo" culture. Like many solemn and angsty teenagers, I found myself fascinated with and mesmerized by Japanese animated television shows, or anime for anyone under the age of 40. Shows like Inuyasha, Gundam Wing, and Dragon Ball Z were my life. And that fascination lead to an obsession with all things Japan. Oh well, at least I learned some cool stuff about eastern culture. I'm still into anime (Cowboy Bebop and Rurouni Kenshin ftw), manga, and other Japanese stuff now, but not as nearly as much.
Anyway, it's getting sort of late and I guess I should peace out and sleep for a while. I spent a lot of time tonight talking just about me, which happens. Perhaps next time I'll actually start in on something culturally meaningful and thought-provoking. Maybe.
Thinking about culture and how we're shaped by it is something that I've been doing long before I ever enrolled in this class, though likely never to the extent that is expected of me here. Developmental psychology is my preferred area of study within the field and the effects that culture has on child development is always something that intrigued me but I never bothered actually going out and conducting my own independent research. Culture and child development are intimately connected, as culture dictates what kind of a person a child develops into. It sets their interests, relationships, likes and dislikes, and whatever else you can think of. I've always considered myself to be a little more outside of contemporary culture than most people. I'm constantly observing other people's behaviour, thinking about why they behave the way they do, and how most people I observe tend to follow a more or less "cookie cutter" set of behaviour while out and about. I often forget that I am by no means the only person who thinks this way; in fact, I imagine most people do the same thing I do. I guess the main difference between and the general public is that while they can seamlessly interacts in all sorts of ways with all sorts of people while maintaining their observational nature, I kind of "sit outside" in a way. I find it difficult interacting with most people and when I do, I tend to think about what I'm doing and saying while I'm doing or saying it, often to the point where my behaviour comes across as awkward. Interpersonal interaction has never been my strong suit; I have few friends, though that's by choice, and I enjoy spending time by myself or with those close to me rather than spending time with groups of people. I have kind of a social anxiety thing going on, but it's been like that for as long I can remember so whatever. If I plan on going out with people, it's almost like I have to psych myself into it and prepare my "people face". It takes a lot of effort, haha. I just prefer spending time alone, with my family, and with my girlfriend. I suppose I see myself as slightly counterculture, which ironically is a culture in and of itself. Though not too counterculture, like hipsters or skinheads or whatever. Just kind of an outsider from the otherwise "normal" population.
While I see myself as an outsider from the culture we see outside everyday on the streets, in the workplace, and on campus, I do consider myself to belong to a number of sub-cultures. First and foremost, I consider myself belonging to the gamer culture; that is, I play a lot of video games. Like a lot. As in I practically eat, drink, and breathe Nintendo. Most of my free time is spent gaming, listening to video game music, and reading about video games. But besides gaming, I also consider myself somewhat well-versed in internet culture. And no, I'm not talking about Facebook, Reddit, 9GAG, or any of those craptastic bastardizations of supposed "internet culture" focused solely on the overproduction and oversaturation of memes. I'm certainly not deep web, hacker material or anything like that. As you can probably guess at this point, I'm a frequenter of 4chan. Yeah, I don't give a crap about Rules 1 and 2 (as if anyone has actually mentioned those since 2008) or that this blog isn't exactly anonymous. It's not like no one's heard of 4chan, anyway. It's like site number 5000 on the Alexa rankings, or whatever. Contrary to what I've been saying to this point, people like me who consider themselves outsiders actually do exist in great numbers and they congregate on sites like 4chan and other *chan sites. It's kind of like being an outsider of one culture makes you a part of another. No matter where you do or what you do, you're always part of some culture. Unless you literally grew up under a rock or in the woods alone. Which isn't very likely, considering that whole humans need other humans for survival thing. Besides gamer and internet culture, I also think of myself as slightly belonging to the japanophile or "weeaboo" culture. Like many solemn and angsty teenagers, I found myself fascinated with and mesmerized by Japanese animated television shows, or anime for anyone under the age of 40. Shows like Inuyasha, Gundam Wing, and Dragon Ball Z were my life. And that fascination lead to an obsession with all things Japan. Oh well, at least I learned some cool stuff about eastern culture. I'm still into anime (Cowboy Bebop and Rurouni Kenshin ftw), manga, and other Japanese stuff now, but not as nearly as much.
Anyway, it's getting sort of late and I guess I should peace out and sleep for a while. I spent a lot of time tonight talking just about me, which happens. Perhaps next time I'll actually start in on something culturally meaningful and thought-provoking. Maybe.
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