> Seriously, I don't know why I have become so involved. ... Do
> I worry about my fellow man because I want there to be a fair
> and clean world for my nephews?
Roy Rappaport pointed out, in `Ritual and Religion in the Making of
Humanity', which I am reading right now,
... whatever may be the case among other species, group selection
(selection for the perpetuation of traits tending to contribute
positively to the survival of the groups in which they occur but
negatively to the survival of the particular individuals in
possession of them) is not only possible among humans but of great
importantance in humanity's evolution. All that is needed to make
group selection possible is a device that leads individuals to
separate their conceptions of well-being or advantage from
bilogical survival. Notions such as God, Heaven, Hell, heroism,
honor, shame, fatherland and democracy encoded in procedures of
enculturation that represent them as factual, natural, public, or
sacred (and, therefore, compelling) have dominated every culture
for which we possess ethnographic or historical knowledge.
page 10
So perhaps it is not your pre-humanity that is affecting you, but your
humanity.
--
Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.teak.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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