After reading a bit of Dawkins' 'Selfish Gene' I started to get a better sense of what evolutionary selection at the gene level means. Without getting into too much detail about about the mechanism, the conclusion from gene level selection is that there are fundamental aspects of our biology that are intrinsic to being human:
e.g. we're always going to have sexual organs, limbs, eyes, and internal organs because these features are so important to reproductive success that, averaged out, the continuance of our species can't happen without them.
In other words, while some biological features like height, size, hair color, eye color, are changeable, the core of our physiology has to stay pretty much the same.
This got me to thinking about cultural universals, and specifically those related to our gender roles, that may be fundamental to the propagation of our species. The question is: are there elements of gender roles that need to stay constant over time, which cannot change?
So much like how there is some variance among biology, our culture is quite diverse, but the core set of reproducers has to stay pretty much the same?
What do you think?
e.g. we're always going to have sexual organs, limbs, eyes, and internal organs because these features are so important to reproductive success that, averaged out, the continuance of our species can't happen without them.
In other words, while some biological features like height, size, hair color, eye color, are changeable, the core of our physiology has to stay pretty much the same.
This got me to thinking about cultural universals, and specifically those related to our gender roles, that may be fundamental to the propagation of our species. The question is: are there elements of gender roles that need to stay constant over time, which cannot change?
So much like how there is some variance among biology, our culture is quite diverse, but the core set of reproducers has to stay pretty much the same?
What do you think?