Note to readers: Sorry I missed a day. I drove up to Edmonton. I thought I would post after I got there, but I was just too tired. But I'm back today. Welcome.                        

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                                                                        (credit: Wikimedia Commons) 

But let’s return to this attempt to discover a model of how moral codes work in the real world.

The gradual process by which new morés enter into the cultural code of a society is vital to the survival of the morés themselves. None of the phases in a society’s adopting a new moré necessarily entails any of the others. A behavior recently acquired by one person on a trial basis may make that individual healthier and/or happier, but this does not automatically mean he will reproduce more prolifically or nurture more effectively or teach his morés to his children more efficiently. Other factors can and do intervene.

Many examples can be cited as evidence to support this generalization. Some of the tribes in Indonesia once taught every member of the community to go into the forest to defecate. The individual had to dig a hole in the earth, defecate in it, then cover the excrement with earth before returning to the tribe’s living spaces. Children were taught to hide their excrement so no hostile shaman could find it and use it to cast an evil spell on such a careless child or his/her family.⁴

In the view of most of us in Western societies, the advantages of the practice lie in the way it reduces the risk to the community of diseases such as cholera. Similar practices are taught to people in Western societies (and described in cultural codes as early as those found in the Old Testament of the Bible).

For centuries, many Europeans drank large quantities of malt liquor, wine, and beer, and later, tea and coffee. This custom was based in tradition rather than religion, but its beneficial effect was felt just the same, since local water often contained dangerous bacteria. While the benefits were mixed because they were offset by the negative effects of alcohol and caffeine abuse, the important thing to see is that these people did not need to know anything about bacteria in order to arrive over generations, by trial and deadly error, at a set of behaviours that enabled them to survive in greater numbers over the long term. Of course, in China, the drinking of tea had been looked on as a healthful practice for both the individual and society for much longer.

   

                                                       (credit: DocteurCosmos, via Wikimedia Commons)