April 12 Walter Goldschmidt, UCLA Anthropology
Causation to motivation: the margin between biology and culture
The Iron Law of Evolution holds that all behavior is ultimately in the service of the DNA.  Social mammals have supplemented such genetic causes of action with learned behavior, presumably because learning is more adaptable than genetic control.  This learning was limited because it could only deal with things that were in the immediate environment.  With language (which differs from other communication by having grammar), it became possible to transmit complex knowledge about things remote in time and space: Narrative was born.  As the human infant acquires his version of the cultural narrative in the affect-laden bosom of familial relationships, he acquires motives as deep and perduring as the DNA caused actions.  Culturally derived motives may replace, supplement or override genetically programmed behavior.  The Narrative is cultural; it varies from place to place, making the difference between ethnology and ethology.  This is a distinction that all anthropologists must be aware of.