‘The WEIRDest People in the World’ Review: Marriage Story

Wall Street Journal - Review of Books ^ | October 2, 2020 | Christopher Levenick

[Wuli]

"We may think that the culture of a society or civilization grows out of a variety of forces—social, political, historical, even biological. But what if culture is itself a potent force, one that, in part, shapes the others? “Culture,” Joseph Henrich writes, “can and does alter our brains, hormones, and anatomy, along with our perceptions, motivations, personalities, [and] emotions." .............. .............. "In the academic literature, societies that trace their origins to Western Europe are referred to as “Weird”: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic." .............. .............. "In his telling, the qualities that make up Weird-ness did not—as many historians and commentators would claim—grow out of the creative energies of the Renaissance or the heightened individualism of the Reformation or the powerful analytic tools of the Enlightenment. All of these, Mr. Henrich argues, were downstream effects. "

[Wuli]

The author looks as western attitudes about marriage, formed by early Christianity, as core to what later developed into "western civilization". His position is that our attitudes about marriage came first, and were not a "result" but the core precursor to western civilization.

[Spirochete]

"In the academic literature, societies that trace their origins to Western Europe are referred to as “Weird”: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic.

It makes perfect sense when you consider that societies for most of human history (and today) were/are agrarian, backward, illiterate, prone to despotism, slavery, and genocide.

That being normal, then Western societies are weird by comparison.

[Steely Tom]

I before E except after C... except in “weird.”

[marktwain]

I have seen the same thing argued about Christian/Judeo views of marriage as between one man and one woman, and the idea of male fidelity to one woman.

It was a sexual revolution at the time.

[Wuli]

The author argues that while the change invoked a change in sexual mores, it was much broader than merely sex, and was in a larger sense a CULTURAL revolution, which led to changes in nearly all western institutions one way or another - from home, to work, to associates, to movement, to individual merit growing in rank above family, clan or tribe as to what someone could do or wanted to do. He argues that the changes induced by the change in marriage LED TO - was the precursor of and leading impetus of changes resulting in - the Renaissance, Reformation and the Enlightenment. That is a collective set of cultural manifestations much larger than mere “sex”.

[marktwain]

Yes.
But sex is an important part of it.