Killer Culture

Two weeks ago, we discussed the advantage of a bigger brain (December’s Bigheads). Despite the fact that it comes with a few drawbacks like getting stuck in the birth canal and consuming a large chunk of our energy, it enables us to do some pretty amazing things. And as our giant melons evolved, they ushered in one of our most fundamental aspects of humanness: culture.

Culture, in its most simplistic definition, is a suite of behaviors that are transmitted within a population. In reality, culture defines us: the things we believe, the technology we use, the social customs we follow, even the way we behave. All these things are guided, if not dictated, by the culture in which we live.

The best way to appreciate your culture is to venture into someone else’s. I’ve had the good fortune of working and studying abroad, and the experience of living in a different culture, even for just a few weeks, makes you appreciate just how culture-bound we humans are. I trained in London and even the Brits, who are culturally very similar to us, have their own odd customs (they sure are fond of the word “toilet”). Then again, I’m sure many aspects of Americana send them reeling.

The development of culture has allowed us entry into some of the most inhospitable climates on earth. Clothing and technology keep us warm as we scale Everest, cool as we traverse the Gobi, and enable us to exploit just about any ecosystem on the planet. But just like the drawbacks of having a big brain, culture has a way of biting back. Let’s take a peek at a few of the ways culture kills.

Cooking revolutionized how and what we eat. It made foods more nutritious and more palatable, and allowed us to redirect energy once used for digestion to fuel our big brains. But humans aren’t programmed to live in a world of perpetual abundance. Our hunter/gatherer ancestors would stock up when good fortune befell them – say the taking down of a juicy mastodon – but our bodies are ill-equipped for round-the-clock takeout and all-you-can-eat buffets. The result: dramatic rates of obesity plaguing much of the developed world.

Our methods of cooking also cause problems. What began with roasting meat and veggies over an open fire has morphed into calorie-laden, artery-clogging techniques that transform our food into delicious but deadly morsels. Is there anything finer than a warm donut, fresh from the fryer? Or a succulent piece of fried chicken accompanied by a heaping pile of mac and cheese? (Pause while I wipe the drool from my computer). Human ingenuity has come up with some pretty devastating methods of food preparation that, I admit, make for some scrumptious delights, but that take a radical toll on our health.

Transportation also plays a pivotal role in our culture and has transformed the capacity and expediency of travel. Plaines, trains, and automobiles, not to mention boats, ships, and rockets, enable us to go farther faster than ever before. But these people-movers are also people-killers. According to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, 2011 saw some twenty-six thousand people die in vehicular crashes. The good news: deaths have trended downward since 1990, I’m guessing due to stricter seatbelt and drunk-driving laws.

Transportation via the skies enables us to hop from continent to continent, but if you’re unlucky enough to be on a jet that plunges to earth, your chances are pretty slim. In 2012, there were a total of twenty-three commercial airline crashes, killing 475 people. And this doesn’t include all the smaller crafts that fell from the sky. Fortunately, developments in technology, such as navigation, early warning, and weather prediction, have improved the safety of air travel, making 2012 the safest year on record since 1945.

Sports have been a part of culture going back millennia. Whether it’s the naked gladiators of Rome, thrashing it out on the sawdust floor of the Coliseum or the ancient Maya playing ball in the jungles of Central America, sports are fundamental to human nature and stir something primal within. But they also take a toll in the form of sports-related deaths. Traumatic injuries from high speed crashes, head injuries from contact sports, and full-body splats by sky divers are just a sampling of the many ways humans die for their sports. And still we play on.

And finally, that most deadly aspect of culture: war. Battles fought over religion, politics, and ethnicity are basically culture wars magnified to horrific scales. And as long as there has been culture, there has been conflict.

So just as parts of our anatomy are trade-offs, culture also comes at a price. It is a powerful tool that can enhance and prolong life, but it can also cause us to behave in ways that are counterintuitive to staying alive. Fortunately, for every drawback, every deadly action, there can be a cultural reaction. Peace accords, safety technology, and education are just a few of the ways culture compensates for our lack of tolerance, judgment, and compassion. We just have to keep prodding it in the right direction.