Tag Archives: Culture

The Movie Baraka as Evidence of a Human Cultural Legacy

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The movie Baraka shows us that humans are not extremely different, but rather that all humans are and must be thought of as interrelated. The movie explores the many ways that human societies adapt to their surroundings, and in doing so, it also shows us that all human societies adapt in similar ways. Although humans themselves are diverse, their diversity pales in comparison to the diversity of the earth itself. The Earth itself has achieved far more diversity than anything a human can imagine ” even aliens in science fiction are based on animals, insects and fish. The human cultural legacy is minute and our existence is naught but a blink in time. That being said, as we are a creation of the earth we do not owe it anything; because, as its creation, we cannot harm it. Of course humans are capable of destroying all life on the planet, but it would recover eventually, and in doing so continue to create new life.

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Evaluation of the statement that “It All Comes Down to Economics”.

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Before one can evaluate the theory itself one must first define economics. Therefore, economics — in its most basic sense — can be defined as the procurement of resources. The statement “It All Comes Down to Economics” reflects this basic sense of the term, but in doing so it raises economics from a means-to-an-end to the driving force. It also declares that all human conflicts and connections are based on the procurement and dissemination of resources. However, the human drive for resources, as with all creatures, is based on the need to successfully reproduce. This drive is what economics is based on, therefore while it does all come down to economics a better phrase may be “it all comes down to sex”. Technicalities aside all cultures and communities depend on economics to survive, if you take economics to be the gathering or reduction of resources. However if you consider economics to be trade, then only large societies have a need for economics on any large scale.

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“Cinema Paradiso” as a Example of Art, Culture and Community

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“Cinema Paradiso” shows just how important art, culture and community is in human lives. For many people in western societies art is something that hangs around the peripheral of their lives never fully entering or leaving. But for Salvatore art was the focus of his life through his youth and adult hood; art and movies were the common threads that connected his entire life together. For the townspeople art was also important to them but not as all consuming as it was for Salvatore.

The Cinema Paradiso itself was the figurative and literal center of the town in the early and mid years it was in operation. Eventually, as the community was able to connect to the outside world more and more the Paridiso was slowly forgotten, until it was finally sold and demolished. During it’s early years of operation the Paridiso was for many people was the only way for them to escape the pressures of living in Sicily after the Second World War, large numbers of soldiers died leaving families broken, the land was poor and work hard to find.

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Culture Based on Instinct: The Human Propensity for Violence

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I. Introduction and Definitions

Is the human propensity for violence caused by culture or our very instincts? More specifically, does “modern” cultural constructs such as video games cause aggression? The second question is easy to answer, but the first is much harder because the argument of “nature versus nurture” has existed before Darwin and is no closer to being resolved today. Their are three major sides to the debate: the first (represented here by Robert W. Sussman) claims that culture is to blame, the second (Wrangham and Peterson) argues that instinct is solely responsible, and the third (Morrell) claims that humans are subject to their genetic makeup AKA the killer ape ancestor theory; however, all sides assume much. For example, arguing that cultures the basis of human aggression assumes that human instincts and genetic predispositions are not able to influence culture, and blaming instinct for aggression assumes that modern culture has no effect on human behavior, and the genetics argument assumes that there is a gene for aggression — which as of yet none has been found.

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