Page 488 - Cultures and Organizations

The Evolution of Cultures 453

Sources of Cultural Diversity and Change

The time-machine trip might have made it look as if there is one royal
evolutionary road for humankind, with but a few variations. This is not so.
Today’s peoples differ vastly in their historical experience with these vari-
ous innovations. Next to and often within the territory of larger empires,
smaller units survived in the form of independent small “kingdoms” or
tribes. Even now, in New Guinea most of the population lives in small
and relatively isolated tribes, each with its own language and hardly inte-
grated into the larger society. In the same vein, Australia’s aborigines have
always been hunter-gatherers. Ancient herding cultures in the Old World

developed traditions of fights between clans. Societies with a long-standing
agricultural tradition tend to be hierarchical and collectivistic. Northwest-
ern European societies and the Anglo spin-offs are all individualistic and
egalitarian, and there is no trace of a collectivistic, large-power-distance
past for these parts of the world. The picture is complex, path dependency
is important, and no simple causal link can be made.
The exposure of different peoples to different means of subsistence

varies widely. So do their climates, flora, fauna, and geographic contextual
factors. Moreover, if selective pressures differ in different places, evolu-
tion tends to diverge. Selection mechanisms at the group level tend to
keep values and some practices stable within the group and to maintain
symbolic boundaries between groups. As a result, the present world shows
an amazing variety of cultures, both in terms of values and in terms of
practices. Most cultures have ancient roots, despite major changes. Culture
changes have been brought about, and will continue to be brought about,
by major impacts of forces of nature and forces of humans. The fi rst reason
for cultural diversity has been adaptation to new natural environments. As
humankind gradually populated almost the entire world, the need for sur-

vival led to different cultural solutions. Collective migrations to different
environments were often forced by famines, owing to climate changes (such

as desertification), to overpopulation, or to political mismanagement (as by
the British rulers of Ireland in the nineteenth century). Natural disasters,
such as earthquakes and floods, have sometimes wiped out entire societies

and created new opportunities for others.
In recent centuries humans have rapidly become better at what biolo-
gists call niche construction. Through fire, clothing, housing, and all kinds