Culture and Transcendence of Culture
The author tells us, that for a period in mid-life we entertain a notion that we are creatures of the culture we inhabit. The world we actually live in is the one that captures our attention. Ultimately, whether we are wild creatures or creatures of our culture is determined by our pre-occupations of the moment.
By “wild beings” the author means that, at the beginning, and then at end of our lives, most of what we express to the world and most of what we appreciate about the world is common to all humans with and is framed mostly by the intentions and expectations of the human genome common to all of us. At the beginning of our lives, and in our last years, our most notable experiences are not about the particulars of the culture we live in. They are the same ones as those of all the humans who have ever lived, and the same as those of all members of our immediate ancestral species going back millions of years, long before there were human cultures or even humans.
By “wild beings” the author means that, at the beginning, and then at end of our lives, most of what we express to the world and most of what we appreciate about the world is common to all humans with and is framed mostly by the intentions and expectations of the human genome common to all of us. At the beginning of our lives, and in our last years, our most notable experiences are not about the particulars of the culture we live in. They are the same ones as those of all the humans who have ever lived, and the same as those of all members of our immediate ancestral species going back millions of years, long before there were human cultures or even humans.
Narrative Three
Culture and Enlightenment
Stories of Lifecourses and Enlightenment
The Stages of Life:
Wild Childhood, Education and Acculturated Adolescence, Enducation and Wild Adulthood
by Bob Walling
for the full essay see: Three Narratives - Narrative Three
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