Nature vs. Culture in Human Evolution: Key Concepts

Nature vs. Culture

Nature

Nature is innate, that which is born because it is genetically preprogrammed or develops in the embryo and fetus.

Culture

Culture is acquired or social learning, from the time when we are born.

Evolution and Species

Evolution

Evolution is the process by which individuals of a species undergo qualitative changes that lead to slowly changing the species from more primitive life forms into more organized ones.

Species

Species refers to each of the groups in which gender divides living beings.

Theories of Evolution

Fixism

Fixism was a theory established in the scientific community and the dominant concept until the nineteenth century.

Transformational Theory

Transformational theory is the first explicit theory of species evolution given by Lamarck.

Mutation

Mutation is a small change in the structure of a gene that, being permanent and hereditary, causes the appearance of new characters in the descendants.

Racism and Ethnocentrism

Racism

Racism is an attitude that regards an ethnic group as inferior to oneself.

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is the consideration of one's own culture as the sole criterion and therefore superior to interpret the behavior of other groups, races, or societies.

Evolutionary Vision

Evolutionary vision is a theory of evolution that is a vision of reality defined by three features:

1. Materialist

   Nature is a matter of what you do not need to explain it from a spiritual reality, but simply science.

2. Dynamics

   In nature, everything changes, and nothing remains but so slowly that we cannot perceive it.

3. Progressive

   With evolution, species are achieving a higher level of complexity and organization.

Hominization and Bipedalism

Hominization

Hominization is the psychosocial process of evolutionary biological changes that have characterized the evolution of hominids, leading to the present human species.

Bipedalism

Bipedalism is the beginning of the process of humanization which involved large anatomical adaptations.

Learned vs. Instinctive Behavior

Learned Behavior

Learned behavior is behavior that is acquired by practice or repetition of acts.

Instinctive Behavior

Instinctive behavior is an innate behavior the same for all members of the species that enables them to adapt to the environment in an identical form.

Cultural Evolution and Development

Cultural Evolution

Cultural evolution, along with biological evolution, results from us.

Hardware Development

Hardware development refers to physical cultural elements artificially produced by man: objects, artifacts, techniques, etc.

Intangible Evolution

Intangible evolution refers to elements related to modes of thinking, knowledge, feelings, attitudes, etc., such as ideas, beliefs, symbolic systems, moral values, standards, policies, institutions, traditions, etc.

Socialization and Identity

Socialization

Socialization is the process through which children or other members learn the lifestyle of society.

Social Identity

Social identity refers to the roles that society assigns to the individual or that are awarded to oneself. It serves to differentiate people with the same characteristics.

Personal Identity

Personal identity is the feeling of being an individual with unique features and having an idea of what we are. It allows us to define ourselves.

Neoteny

Neoteny is the plasticity or juvenile disposition of our species that involves a network of relationships necessary for development with other human beings for their development.