[Redcloak]

Genes influence behavior which influences culture.

Hogwash. (And that's the most repectful term I can come up with.) Culture has absolutely nothing to do with genetics. If you drop a Swedish infant into the middle of South Korea, in 18 years you'll have a blond haired, blue eyed Korean; not a Swede. Culture is learned.

[wardaddy]

LOL. I see you bristle at the mere use of the word race and gentics in the same breath as culture. I suspect that indeed you do have PC leanings in this area...and given that, you will naturally assume that I'm racist since I don't adhere ro your kumbaya sentiments. Indeed in your extreme example of dropping one Swedish infant into any foreign environment then you are correct that this infant will assume most of the cultural practices around itself in time. However if genetics and hence behavior have no influence on culture than why do we not all have a universal bland culture worldwide? Geography alone does not explain it. The problem is that the relationship between genetics and behavior and culture is complimentary and it can be difficult to see which is influencing the other at which stage.

Your statement that it is Hogwash that genetics influences behavior which influences culture discounts many rather obvious exceptions like American Indian alcoholism. I for one do not think that American Indians have incredible alcoholism rates strictly because of their behavior and culture. They are obviously genetically predisposed to abuse alcohol and occupy an environment conducive to such behavior hence their genetics is indeed influencing their behavior and in turn their culture.

BTW, you could probably drop that Swedish baby into a family of chimps and it would emulate chimps as well...to a degree.

I have observed race and culture all over the world and confess that from a layman's perspective that there are indeed differences physically which can most definitely be catagorized by race. Often but not always, there are substantial cultural definitions ascribed by race (and genetics) as well but then one gets into all the other variables which contribute besides race so it becomes impossible to draw a conclusion as to how much influence that is.

[wardaddy]

Culture is learned.

Yes....and culture is developed over a period of time by behavior which in my view is influenced by many factors such as climate, geography, food sources, and yes genetics. And genetics likewise change right along with the other variables as they change.

[SauronOfMordor]

Culture has absolutely nothing to do with genetics. If you drop a Swedish infant into the middle of South Korea, in 18 years you'll have a blond haired, blue eyed Korean; not a Swede. Culture is learned.

There are a few things which genetics has some bearing on: average IQ (despite the Left's effort to deny it), average testosterone production (which affects aggressiveness level). The various genetic traits, in addition to the environmental factors, would have some bearing on what sort of culture evolved

[Michael2001]

Hogwash. (And that's the most repectful term I can come up with.) Culture has absolutely nothing to do with genetics. If you drop a Swedish infant into the middle of South Korea, in 18 years you'll have a blond haired, blue eyed Korean; not a Swede. Culture is learned.

If you drop a baby Michael Jordan into Korea, in 18 years you'll probably have a pretty good basketball player. If you dropped a baby Bill Gates into Michael Jordan's crib, you'd have someone who was bright, but not so good at basketball, despite the culture of being raised in Michael Jordan's crib.