Blog #2

Looking at our ancestor primates in last Tuesday class (Jan. 25th), yes, in deed, it took many millions of years to get to where we are now.  I wonder, “ why us?”   That is a big question, as Dr. Plumb said, but I just wondering whoever decided to give this special cognition skill, why did they choose us?  Probably it is just like a perfect storm, every element were there for us to do this. (?)  The answer to this question is not important, what is really interesting is that Human being is the product of not only genetic evolution but also the product of “Cultural events in historical time and personal events in ontogenetic time” Here (Page 216) The sculpture is shaped not only by the characteristic of materials, but also by environment and the “hands of others.”  Tomasello continued to tell us not to ignore “hard empirical works” because without them, we become “something other than a fully human intentional and moral agent.” (Page 215)

To me, what is great about his theory is that it leads my attention to our cultures and personal phenomena.  Again, looking at his theory brings me into the thoughts about “minds,”(in First Blog) and I feel that we have to look at this from different angle also.  What I like to point out here is that even with abundant cultural events we are exposing to our children, somehow, we are creating immoral (what is moral or not is relative to each culture and society but what I mean here is basic, general moral) minds in somewhere.  And this modern immoral minds are much more unpredictable than the individual who simply did not have exposure to cultural learning and inheritance, because the individual without cultural inheritance would probably act only to protect itself for survival, I assume, but we don’t have much clue how the first individual would act unless we lived closer with him/ her. 

I feel that we have been leaving “survival” part of our history and heading only to the direction of comfort and greed.  It might be the time for us to look at this cultural inheritance we are giving to our children.  Harmony is not there any more.  I believe that because we are just one of species live in this world, our survival as a species should not disappear no matter how far we develop, and it should always be next to our cultural & personal development.  Did we come too far from where we should be?  Do we have to go back to the point or can we bring "that part" back into our society now? 

So, Tomasello’s book, “The cultural origins of Human cognition,” explained to me not only how human being got to the place we are now but also give me an idea where to look at to help solving problems we are having in our modern society now.  If the cultural leaning skill is the important part of our children’s development, are we doing OK now?  If each culture has a responsibility for children’s moral development, is our culture handing down right information to our children?  Are we not heading to self-destruction?  If we are, we are not destroying only ourselves but all the other species in the end.  I am afraid these are already happing through global warming, de-forestation, etc.

When I was talking to my husband about Tomasello’s theory, he mentioned about our Doctor we used to see in Maine.  Unfortunately, he passed away 11 years ago.  He treated people with his own technique of energy work.  He said that our body needs to be balance to be good health, and anything could affect to this balance, even our history.  Our bodies connected to not only our own feelings and cultural environments but also our ancestors (history) and their feelings. See Here Tomasello is saying same thing in this book, we consist of not only with our biological capability in evolutional time but also “cultural events in historical time and personal events in ontogenetic time.”  (Page 216)  When we look at our problem either physically or socially, we should look at these three imperative factors.

So…. Do we have to stop this “Ratchet effect?”  Are we able to go forward with bringing back some of necessary skills we used to have for “survival?”  The word, “survival” is back in our culture right now, we see it and hear it all over the places, but let’s not make that into just a “fashion” or “business” only, let’s make it to mean truly.  Let us bring back some of fundamental skills and thoughts we used to use into our culture before we destroy this beautifully constructed complex species of all the beings.