Now that I have a happy cat I will continue the argument. Last week I read
Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone which demonstrates the decline in social
capital in the US. I see much of it as being due to the decline of the small
communities where everybody knew each other (the 200 people that we are
programmed to cope with and can recognise) as society changes. There is also
a generational effect as the very community minded generation born before
the Second World War dies off. But much is due to the modern lifestyle. This
doesnt tie in with the supposed American religious fundamentalism which must
have a mythic element. Anyway Putnam's analysis from surveys doesnt support
it.
So if the West as it globalises is finding a significant reduction in social
capital in its communities bringing with it all the relevant problems and
religion is fast vanishing what is going to bind people together. The only
answer given tonight was football. The only other thing I can think of is
dialect..texting for example. Each generation replaces the exiosting dialect
by a fresh argot. But the basic problem is that our mnds are programmed to
live in communities of less than 200 people and the last 3-4,000 years of
urbanisation have not been good for us.
And oh there was another point re Theory of Mind. Women are better than men
at it hence their superior verbal skills. Which are hardwired into the
brain, as we know..left and right hemispheres, as are men's spatial skills.
TOM is too complicated for me to explain in an email. Shakespeare was good
at it.
Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 10:51 PM
Subject: poets and shamans
>I went to a lecture on region tonight by the evolutionary psychologist
>Robin
> Dunbar. There wasnt much new in it but it did draw the threads together.
>
> Our brains are programmed for us to live in communities of less than 200
> and
> it appears that each community has its own shaman. (He exampled army
> companies being the largest viable military unit) As approximately 1% of
> the
> population is psychotic the inference is obvious. My calculations years
> ago
> re poets calculated that 1 in 5,000 is a poet so shamans are not shamans
> because of their linguistic abilities but because in their trance states
> they can contact other worlds. So that is 25 shamans to a poet, near
> enough.
>
> Robin Dunbar conceded that we were hardwired for religion. (I have spent
> the
> day reading Michael Ruse's Darwin and Design which demolishes the
> Intelligent Design people but he will not commit himself to a Dawkins
> approach preferring some sort of Gaia approach). What Robin Dunbar was
> stressing was that in large groups of people the problem was with
> freeloaders who took all the advantages without giving anything back.
> These
> were the people who manipulated such structures as religion for their own
> ends. One of the reasons we have developed dialect is to minimise their
> influence. (This was new to me).
>
> There are several books which point out that the human brain is
> fundamentally flawed which is why we have such a thing as religion which
> Theory of Mind makes us capable of. But the chimps of Gombe demonstrate
> that
> we are not alone in being nasty bits of work.
>
> Now I must go feed the cat. I thought Liz would appreciate this report.
>
>
> Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
> http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
>
> --
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