Human Competitive Advantage through the Transmission of Culture

As we learned through reading Michael Tomasello’s The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition (as listed on Chapters.ca), humans have thrived as a species and were able to evolve due to our capacity to share information with purpose and teach other. It is through the transmission of culture that humans have a competitive advantage and are able to progress as quickly as they did as a species on Earth.

Our ability to transmit culture and purposefully pass on lessons and tools from generation to generation has allowed humans to elude nature’s survival of the fittest that other species face. An interesting example that we discussed in class was Dr. Plumb’s mention of the fact that humans have been replicating caves since the days our ancestors lived in them full-time. I had never pondered why classrooms, boardrooms, and so on are usually set up with tables that seat everyone in a u-shape or a circle. I assumed that it was so all parties could engage in eye contact and to encourage open communication (which I’m sure is at least partially the reason). But what I hadn’t realized is that a conference room or classroom is a reproduction of a cave setting. All parties can sit in an enclosed space together without distraction of having to worry that there is danger or a predator behind them.

When you consider this notion further, you realize that human ability to transfer meaningful information and culture has literally helped us live longer. The advances in modern medicine and healthcare have increased an average human life expectancy at birth in America from 58 years for men and 62 years for women in 1938 to 74 years for men and 80 years for women in 2001 (http://www.prb.org/pdf06/NIA_FutureofLifeExpectancy.pdf).  As noted in the article, life expectancy for the other G8 countries is following the same trend.  People in developed countries are living longer, healthier lives. New drugs are being developed to aid in the recovery from diseases and various ailments based on research that has been built upon and shared from one laboratory to the next over many decades.

This graph is a little blurry but you can read the full article this graph came from and view a clearer image on the StatsCan website: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-229-x/2009001/demo/lif-eng.htm

 As humans, we are also unique in our use of tools in everyday life. As Johnson-Frey discusses in his minireview (http://pdn.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MiamiImageURL&_cid=272195&_user=10&_pii=S0896627303004240&_check=y&_coverDate=2003-07-17&view=c&_gw=y&wchp=dGLzVlB-zSkzV&md5=1ef131adeeca1c16dccf90a1f50e295d/1-s2.0-S0896627303004240-main.pdf), human and nonhuman primate brains are similar but it is human ability to reason about an “objects’ physical properties and interactions” that likely explains humans ability for complex tool use (p. 2, 2003). I think Tomasello would agree. It is this same ability to understand an item’s multiple properties and how it can purposefully interact with other items that allows us to pass the information to our fellow humans. This cognitive benefit along with Tomasello’s “joint attentional scene” (p. 96, 1999) allows humans a huge competitive advantage as a species; we share best practices of complex tool use, innovate the tool use and pass it on for the next generation to improve on further.

In a basic context, reflect for a moment on the number of tools and utensils you currently have in your kitchen for preparing food.  We have sharp knives to cut our food, pots and pans to cook our food over heat, and numerous dishes to serve the prepared food in, not to mention the numerous kitchen gadgets to do just about any other task you desire (my favourite is a Magic Bullet – it helps you make the easiest smoothies, salsa, and guacamole http://www.buythebullet.com). All of these things have made us more efficient in preparing the food for our sustenance than our ancestors. Gone are the days of using sharp rocks to cut food, preparing everything by hand from scratch, and cooking over fires for our survival.

My favorite kitchen tool, the "Magic Bullet".

From our use of tools, came the development of weapons. As we know, early humans used weapons to hunt animals for food and to protect themselves from falling prey to animals. Knowledge of using objects for tools and tool use was an important part of culture that was passed from generation to generation (for an interesting quick read on the Ngadjonji aborigines of Australia’s tool and weapon use: http://earthsci.org/aboriginal/ngadjonji%20history/food/weapons/Weapons%20and%20Tools.htm).

Over time as societies have developed and progressed, so have weapons. Weapons for hunting prey became more robust and automatic in the form of shotguns and rifles, and personal weapons in the form of handguns are now commonplace.  And let’s not forget the emergence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and biological warfare. Weaponry has now advanced so far that sophisticated artillery is used in conflict and wars against each other. According to the NATO website, “The use or threatened use of weapons of mass destruction significantly influenced the security environment of the 20th century and will also impact international security in the foreseeable future”  (http://www.nato.int/docu/briefing/wmd/html_en/wmd04.html). As you can see, the advancement of weapons is so robust that we may end up harming the progress of the human species if the full capacities of weapons are unleashed against one another.

Have we gone too far in the development of weapons?

I’m sure we can agree that the culture that was passed on to us (including the tools and traditions in that culture) as we developed and the culture that surrounds us shapes our lives. The use of our advanced communication and cognitive skills as humans to collaborate with each other and transmit culture helps our species move forward. However, we are still fragile beings like every other living organism on Earth and are affected by others’ use of tools and weapons. As such, we need to ensure that major devastation to the species does not occur due to the use of weapons and super weapons. Hopefully our world leaders will continue to use their inherited reasoning and communication skills to prevent the use of weapons causing major devastation so the human species can continue to innovate and progress.