(credit: Wikimedia Commons)

It is important to note the profound way in which human behavior patterns differ from those of nearly all other animals. A turtle need not ever see another turtle, from hatching to dying of old age, in order to be turtle-like. Alone, a turtle would not be able to complete its genetically-driven reproductive behavior each mating season, but it would at least try to find a mate. The rest of the time, it would live in ways that are completely normal for turtles, entirely directed by its body’s genetic code.

Creatures like ants, crabs, and fish that came early in evolutionary history clearly are more fully programmed by their genetic codes than are those of higher orders such as cats, dogs, apes, and humans. But even most large, complex animals learn only small portions of their behavioral repertoires. Kittens, in time, will stalk balls and then mice and birds, even if they are taken from their mothers still blind and helpless. Puppies are genetically programmed to bury bones. Humans, by contrast, if raised by dogs, become humanoid dogs, and demonstrate hardly any human behaviors at all. We humans—unlike turtles, apes, and kittens—learn how to be human-like by “enculturation,” that is, almost entirely from other, older humans.^1,2

Most animal behaviors are instinctive, programmed into animals genetically, especially in lower-order animals. As we rise up the scale of complexity, we arrive at humans, in whom most behaviors are programmed by nurture—by their upbringings, in other words. The body of knowledge that a given human community or tribe consults in order to respond to specific situations, to perform the recommended behaviors, and then to verify that each behavior has been done appropriately, forms what is called the culture of that society or tribe. Put a dead fish in the ground with each corn seed that you plant in the spring and wear your tuxedo and black tie to the opera.

The first step on our journey to answering the large questions about humans and their ways is simply this: patterns of behavior in human communities are mostly the result of programming of individuals in their formative years by the adults around them.