Culture may be encoded in DNA
POSTED BY: kpo
UPDATED: Saturday, September 5, 2026 00:24
VIEWED: 9894
PAGE 5 of 14
Quote:
Originally posted by Wulfenstar:
Does a culture of violence, hate, and victimization produce people who are violent, hatefilled and with a chip on their shoulder?
Yes.
Does a culture of materialism produce those that care nothing but for the "paper"?
Yes.
How did the same culture produce both Hitler and Einstein then?
How did the Jewish culture produce Christ?
Quote:
Does a culture that promotes misogyny, while also promoting feminism produce illigitimate families and a downward spiral that serves only to circle in on itself?
Yes.
Assumes evidence not introduced into the debate. I know of no culture that promotes both misogyny AND feminism. And what is an "illegitimate family"?
Quote:
This goes for ANY culture that has imploded. Any group that has decided to become dependant on others.
Like all capitalists?
They are, by definition, dependent on the capital of others.
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Quote:
Originally posted by kaneman:
The only thing worse than me saying that our Big-lip brethren are animals and live as such .....is you people debating about it....Have you any shame?... Really...I am a black women and find your debate repulsive...
I'm a scientist. We generally lack shame, it's a tragic flaw.
We also lack self-awareness, humility, hygiene, and general common sense!
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I aree with citizen, they've proven something fairly obvious, which is only half the puzzle. But I don't belittle the fact that they've proven it.
Byte, I would refer you to this line :"But if there are no vocal role models around, the song will deviate from the traditional song and be harsh to female finch ears"
if so, that would be a lock. Personally, I think they're golden here.
I skipped the vast swath of this thread that was not discussing birds. Birds are relatively simple animals, other creatures are more complex, and it's hard to figure what they would cotton to, but here we have some pretty clear indications of what might explain some of human behavior. For instance, children of indo Europeans love indo european fairy tales. They are their favorite stories as children, and as adults, given basically zero media or cultural encouragement in that direction. Equally I find people of other backgrounds are drawn to other cultures. I know many people who are so liberal that they react against their own europeans backgrounds in favor of others, and still show this draw to indo European backgrounds, listen to classical music, read fairy tales and can't stand rap, hip hop or R&B, and I have to figure they've really tried.
Now none of this is an indicator of BEHAVIOR. it's an indication of tastes, like those of the bird. Those tastes in the birds also affect their mating behavior and social structure, and so if they have a genetic basis would be passed on.
What i don't credit is that the bird is physically limited to this. I listened to all the songs and it's clear that the bird can make all kinds of sounds.
I suspect something like this happened, and it's simpler than people are making it out to be:
1) the females mated with available males,even if they found their songs whiny, because there was no competition.
2) then there was competition. Male brids competed with each other for better pick up lines, and the females mated with those with the songs that pushed their buttons. It was probably not a genetic difference between the birds in question, and the birds probably learned new tricks all the time in their competition.
3) the third generation of birds gamed the system, and learneed the perfect song that exactly fit the pattern preprogramm into the female birds brains, and I do mean genetically. After that, nothing particularly interesting happened.
What I find fascinating is what the birds created in the interim. It reminds me of the foundations of early human cultures, and how it might have happened, and how, they, too, fell into a patter of ritual after the third generation. You find this in early india,Greece, china, mezoamerica, and you find it here in the united states.
Think about it. What we like about the USA is generally the society that was created in the interim, during the first three generations, which was different from the norm of human societies. This might spell unfortunate things about the true nature of human society and where it will lead when our descendants perfectly game the system of our deep coded secret dresires.
Something to gnaw on anyway.
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Quote:
Originally posted by mal4prez:
One interesting study I recall as far as English/Chinese: The "r" sound is tough for a native Chinese speakers to make, but some scientists claimed that Chinese DNA'd babies who hear spoken English for their first year have no problem. I think this article was in Science magazine, or something like, a good decade ago, and the argument was that language patterns are set in the brain during year 1, even before babies speak.
I think you might be on to something, but I dispute the "year 1" part of it. I'm a case study in this, in a way. I'm not "Chinese DNA'd", but moved to Taiwan when I was 2, when I was learning to speak, and was around the Chinese culture for a few formative years. When we moved back to the States, I had to have speech therapy classes, because I had trouble with the "R" sound.
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Friday, May 28, 2010 - 18:26 To President Obama:
Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar.
Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.
... go fuck yourself, Mr. President.
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We used to have a mockingbird that hung out near the loading dock, and one of the guys' wife would always call him at break time, and he had his phone set to the "Euro-style" ringtone ("BBRRRRTT-BBRRRRTT" - two rings in quick succession). One day we all heard it, and were looking around, because Ronaldo wasn't there that day. We were looking EVERYWHERE for that damned phone - and then I realized what it was: it was the mockingbird! He was just doing what he thought he should do...
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Friday, May 28, 2010 - 20:32 To AnthonyT:
Go fuck yourself.
On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you.
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 18:26 To President Obama:
Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar.
Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.
... go fuck yourself, Mr. President.
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DT, I disagree with this, but I have to think about why.
I do have a few thoughts.
Quote:
Those tastes in the birds also affect their mating behavior and social structure, and so if they have a genetic basis would be passed on.
I think studies have overemphasized the "song preference" element of bird mating behaviour. Hybridized species often occur where there is overlap, even though the species will have different songs because of geographical location.
I think maybe claiming this is genetic is taking this belief in bird song preference to an extreme end. Bird song preference is probably important, but it doesn't seem to be the everything people think it is. I don't think we fully understand what influences the choices here.
We also have nothing really to suggest definitively that this has a genetic basis; I'm not sure why it would need to be learned and relearned if so.
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I think it's culture, more than skin color or anything else, that keeps us at odds.
And I think culture , more than anything else, is learned, not imprinted.
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Byte
The male birds modified their song towards a common song, they did so to attract the females, I think thats very likely. That would point to a genetic tendency.
Birds in different regions are very varied genetically. Chickadees show radical genetic difference within the species based on area. Song preference is a fairly minor difference. Probably very close to random, but still, it seems, genetic.
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Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
I think it's culture, more than skin color or anything else, that keeps us at odds.
And I think culture , more than anything else, is learned, not imprinted.
Can't disagree with that.
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Culture is not a simple idea, it is made of many parts and infinate variations... The idea that one specific idea of culture can be genetically imprinted is unlikely, at best. However I think
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