A new model of civilization

The cultural relativism advocated by many anthropologists would be that any culture whatever it may be has an equivalent value for individuals. What would count would be the adequacy of the individual to his group with its traditions, independently of any requirements linked to his innate nature.

This postulate is far from being demonstrated. On the contrary, we can easily prove the opposite. As in demonstrations by the absurd, one example is enough to invalidate a hypothesis. For example, in India there is the cult of a goddess who demands the total castration of her flock as a sacrifice. Aside from the shocking and traumatic side of such practices, you just have to ask the young people who undergo the operation how they feel about it. As long as they escape the omerta that plagues the sect, they complain of permanently suffering from the imperiousness of impulses which persist, but which no longer find support for their realization.

It is clear that a culture containing unnatural demands is harmful to the individual. Natural drives arise from the genetic programming of the psyche. Thwarting them creates frustrations, internal or external conflicts, permanent suffering, explosions of aggressiveness, depression, suicides, etc. The example cited is a caricature, but the same mechanisms are at work each time a cultural obligation or prohibition is contrary to genetic potential and exceeds the capacity for adaptation. Strict relativism therefore does not hold water.

We can therefore define a set of “progenetic” cultures, consistent with the genetic data specific to the species. A culture that meets this definition will only impose psychologically and biologically acceptable obligations and prohibitions, which will not have harmful consequences. Our Western culture, through the dietary, sexual and consumerist customs that it imposes on us, is riddled with serious nuisances. It is therefore not part of the group of progenetic cultures.

One of the objectives of evolutionary ecopsychology is to denounce the non-progenetic elements which taint our Western culture, or even the different known cultures, to explain their historical and psychophysiological origins. Once these elements have been updated, it becomes easier to take an appropriate step back, to better understand the causes of individual suffering, and to develop a better-suited lifestyle, at least for oneself. With the distant hope of improving our society for generations to come…