Human nature

In Anthropology this past week we've talked about human nature. Our discussion led mainly to the conclusion that there is no definitive human nature, and that people are overwhelmingly shaped by their culture. I think that this is very true, despite the many similarities that all humans share or seem to share.

Our globalized world makes us more alike than we used to be, but even before this process all human groups used language of some kind. All human groups adorned their bodies in some way; there are no people who go around totally naked, without any jewelry or paint other distinguishing articles. I would argue that all humans create and enjoy art, and that all humans tell and enjoy stories. Then of course there are the biological facts of human nature: reproduction, emotions of some kind, walking on two feet, and so on.

So there are some elements that might together constitute human nature. But on the whole, people are very different and there is a lot of variety.

All of this got me thinking about something else I learned in Environmental Studies. Sometimes a species is broken up into distinct populations that are geographically separated. They are still the same species genetically. They can interbreed, though they may not due to behavioral differences.

The point is that these different groups are considered different subspecies or even distinct species in some cases. Even though they are genetically the same, there are enough behavioral and sometimes physical differences that there are considered distinct in an important way.

This is only applied to animal species. I'm reluctant to consider humans in this way -- some people used to and that only led to scientific racism. But I think that it's interesting that, in the 21st century at least, we are so into unification. We want to talk about human nature, as a whole. We wouldn't talk about mountain lion nature, not in the same way. We'd talk about the similarities and differences in the subspecies, but we wouldn't yearn after some essential way of life or mindset that all mountain lions share.

I think that finding similarities between  people can only have positive outcomes, but I think that what's more important is simply accepting our differences. Culture constructs us, plain and simple, and I think we just have to be okay with that. We probably shouldn't start trying to map out any subspecies of homo sapiens, but we should understand that these variations are natural.

Culture is one thing that all humans share. And culture shapes us in ways that are often invisible to us. Culture arises from our surroundings and environment, so separated people will develop different behaviors, even different appearances.

The same thing happens to animal species, but we don't go around saying that one species is more primitive than another, or better than another. They simply adapted to their environment. And that's what culture is; an adaptation that allows people to survive and thrive.