Reply #80: Great Post to Ponder

[Tsiyu]

It's so difficult to put the entire problem into words.

On the one hand, we have a history on this planet of violent, weapons-bearing cultures anhilating non-violent, non-patriarchal cultures.
The non-violent DNA - ala Natural Selection - took a procreative nose dive. No doubt most of us bear the DNA of the more violent tribes, as they lived to produce more offspring and, well, here we are.

What this means is that we have more of the more violent cultural and physical data to study. This study brings us no closer to a scientific or truthful study of human behavior, because the sample has been skewed with the introduction of tools with which to practice genocide. It may very well be that, biologically speaking, humans would function best under either matriarchal systems or more egalitarian systems than those currently in greatest practice on our planet.

We will only know this when more of these cultural systems begin operating and the members who choose these non-patriarchal systems pass on their DNA.

Not likely any time soon, I realize, but I reject religious or scientific justification for the tendency of modern man to be misogynistic. Religious texts - like history - are written by the victors, and they aren't always the most noble, peace-loving souls.

Science studies only the victors, failing to ask this important question:

If a human cultural action or actions cause a decline in human mortality ( the measure of a society's "success or failure" as a biological entity ) how can this be considered "normal" in biology?

For example, saying that "it is a biological urge for a man to breed with dozens of women" ignores the biological fallout of that decision. Many of the infants and their mothers in this scenario will die of poverty and starvation, children will compete with each other for resources and attention, causing an increase in crime and violence, sexually transmitted diseases will increase - possibly rendering the entire female group sterile, mothers will compete for resources, male offspring will be cast out at a young age to form "bachelor bands" of hungry criminals, the male will be pulling his hair out and end up mumbling alone in a cave somewhere.

This is just one example of following a "theory" to its logical conclusion. If it isn't productive or benign behavior to the group at large over the long haul, it makes no biological sense and cannot be deemed "normal" behavior.

No one gets my point, I'm sure, but I damn well try anyway.

:eyes: