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 Originally Posted by wufwugy
Like, do you really think that environment doesn't matter?
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To be a bit epistomological, primary among my beliefs is that I don't really know but I'll always settle for something that doesn't seem wrong and is pragmatic.
Falling down from there, boys and girls are different. The internal experience of being a boy or a girl is different. I don't worry so much about outliers like faffergirls or transgenders, because the problem is difficult enough as is and there are plenty of normal people to focus on.
Next to that, a great guiding principle in biology is 'Structure is Purpose' so I'm interested in how girls and boys are different structurally and there's some reason to believe their brains are different. These reasons stem from differences in behavior at very young ages and differences in hormone profiles in the womb.
You can look at the brain and see regions where the purpose of the structure has clear implication on how a person behaves or what their internal life is like. These structures, I would bet, are largely outside of the touch of culture (amygdala for one) (assuming the culture provides peace, stability, a home, relationships, etc etc). There are other structures which are very dynamic and likely can be molded by culture (neocortex). (One of the reasons I'm so interested in the brain is because of the dominant role it has in explaining people in general, and so I would have a lot of 'nature' to draw in in trying to make sense of 'em, and if you want to use brain plasticity to explain how nurture can change the brain, you're going to have to learn what brain plasticity is, how it works, and where it doesn't work.)
On top of that, I would say that trying to understand people by focusing on culture and how it affects them is a poor tact for trying to unravel this puzzle.
I rather instead think it's a much better idea to start from genetics, brain structure, history, etc etc, to see what you can isolate as human nature and brainstorm from there. Society is a culturefuck of nonsense where you can spin tales to explain anything you want any way you want. I'd rather take it that Nature is the ship, Culture is the ocean.
Aside from that, and walking pretty fair afield, growing up in my culture didn't feel like I was being raised or influenced as both of these words imply some external forcer. I rather consider that I grew up in a society that has an ancestry through Britain, through Christendom, through Rome, through the ancient world, and has probably been evolving to be a good fit for a large portion of its population. I don't think culture influenced me, because it didn't have to. It knew what boys do and need when they grow up and so that stuff was there, and I was allowed to grow up. Certainly, if I grew up in different circumstances, I may have clashed with my culture and my beliefs would be different. Though, I would like to believe that I would recognize the majority of Me's that might come from other cultures and times.
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