Wolves closing in to kill a caribou doe

In this book, wisdom is seen as being a prime virtue. In the economic sector of our society, we all need to be wise enough to grasp a lesson. When there is a lesson as glaring as this one to be found in the history recorded by our forebears, refusing to learn that lesson would not just be unwise; it would be suicidal. Modern business leaders and modern union leaders, however much they may dislike one another, have by and large grown wise enough to see that they need one another. Dynamic balances make our society work. It is only in adjusting the balance that we argue. Over time, the wolf pack keeps the caribou herd strong, and vice versa.

And this discussion of the ways in which social evolution driven by cultural changes can be compared to physiological/anatomical evolution driven by genetic variation can be pursued further. The discussion is worth the trouble because it reiterates a main claim of this book, namely that these comparisons and analogies are not mere figures of speech. The idea that cultural adaptations are the key driving forces in human survival fits the evidence.

  

                                                             Prickly pear cactus, Utah, USA

  

                                                            Sedum spurium, Iran

For example, in biology, convergence is the term describing the phenomenon seen in species that are widely separated geographically, but that, after millennia of evolution, are found using nearly identical strategies for survival. Desert plants of widely differing species, in widely separated deserts, have waxy leaves. They also put off flowering and reproducing for years until that rare desert downpour arrives.

  

                                               An Arapaho elder with his granddaughter

  

                                                  A Samburu woman with her grandchild

Similarly, nearly all human societies that have made it into the present age, with vastly disparate cultures and from widespread geographic areas, respect, value, and heed their elderly. In pre-literate tribes, an old person was a walking encyclopedia of the tribe’s accumulated knowledge. What the old had stored in their heads could save lives, even a whole tribe. This is convergence in the cultural realm.