well "culture" is much too vague a word for what i'm getting at: obviously all kinds of non-genetic information (in the form of "facts"?) can be acquired and passed on, and is, all the time --- what i'm fumbling for is a term for that aspect of culture which is broader, like "comprehension" or "wisdom"
The ability to see colour is inherited genetically; it doesn't derive from a basic explanation. Part of the ability to name colour is passed on culturally: the facts (as in the names of the colours) are transmitted verbally (with a suitable caveat for transmission in deaf and blind communities). But the ability to distinguish? Is this genetically hardwired or culturally introduced? I think I'm arguing that "understanding" so stands on basic inherited animal skills -- albeit skills corralled by example and transmission within cultural matrices to produce shareable wisdoms -- that it's a real mistake to think of it as transmissable in a Lamarckian sense.
(I'm not sure how interesting this idea now I pin it down a bit... and it doesn't necessarily have much to do with pre-adaptation... or if it does I haven't seen how quite yet.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-03-08 04:48 pm (UTC)The ability to see colour is inherited genetically; it doesn't derive from a basic explanation. Part of the ability to name colour is passed on culturally: the facts (as in the names of the colours) are transmitted verbally (with a suitable caveat for transmission in deaf and blind communities). But the ability to distinguish? Is this genetically hardwired or culturally introduced? I think I'm arguing that "understanding" so stands on basic inherited animal skills -- albeit skills corralled by example and transmission within cultural matrices to produce shareable wisdoms -- that it's a real mistake to think of it as transmissable in a Lamarckian sense.
(I'm not sure how interesting this idea now I pin it down a bit... and it doesn't necessarily have much to do with pre-adaptation... or if it does I haven't seen how quite yet.)