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.