Re: harsh conditions => communitarian culture ?

On 06 Aug 2005, you wrote in rec.arts.sf.written:

>
> Omixochitl wrote:
>> "Barry Cotter" <Barry.P.Cotter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>> news:1123243321.221123.296760@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
>>
>> > sigvald@xxxxxxxx wrote:
>> >> Barry Cotter wrote:
> [snip]
>> > If they fail to adapt to their environment to such an extent that
>> > they can all be taken away by slaving vessels, or are so small a
>> > population that they can be assimilated by the Greenland Inuit
>> > without at least gross morphological changes, never mind linguistic
>> > or cultural funkiness, I consider that simple "failed to adapt".
>> > Even if they did
>>
>> Wait a minute, doesn't assimilating to a mainstream sometimes take a
>> lot of adaptive skills?
>
> Absolutely. Witness the sterling examples of assimilation/adaptation
> that are the First Nations of Canada, the Australian Aboriginies or
> the natives of the Argentinian pampas. Obviously, if there just aren't
> enough settlers to crowd you out, you'll likely do better, like the
> South American natives, but you still don't end up on top of the heap.

Actually, I was thinking more of immigrants moving to mainstreams than of
natives having foreign mainstreams move in.

Meanwhile, I don't want to imply that the First Nations, Aborigines, etc.
are unskilled! Sometimes assimilation can be so difficult that even very
skilled people who try don't manage it, and some very skilled people have
better things to do with their time.

> I amn't sure if by mainstream you mean culture, in which case there's
> no evidence the Greenland Norse did with the Inuit, or likewise with
> environment. If the last, their way of life was marginal, but
> sustainable in the Interglacial warming period, but not after, and
> they couldn't adapt to the new (hellish to them) environmental
> conditions.

I meant culture. For example, learning foreign languages is very
difficult for me! When an immigrant who had to get fluent in one to
assimilate succeeds at that, he or she is definitely more skilled than me
in at least something...

OTOH, you're right, adjusting to a new physical environment can take a
lot of hard work too (learning to grow new crops, etc.).
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: harsh conditions => communitarian culture ?
    ... >> If they fail to adapt to their environment to such an extent that they ... doesn't assimilating to a mainstream sometimes take a lot of ... South American natives, but you still don't end up on top of the heap. ... couldn't adapt to the new environmental conditions. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Name the earliest living thing
    ... > the environment" apply to their ideas. ... It was a fluke."? ... > say that they thought life originated outside the environment? ... And that IS pop up and then through natural selection adapt. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: FOBS as a Primary Motivator for Human Spaceflight
    ... I am of the opinion that our environment is far more robust that the ... any mascon that's in such a nearby orbit of our 98.5% fluid Earth. ... bit outside of your cozy mainstream status quo box, ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Re: what is life
    ... They adapt to some "novelties" and fail to adapt to others. ... You have changed the wording here from whether humans do adapt to whether they ... their developmental response to their current novel environment. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Leadership in SF
    ... leader and a follower is that a leader changes the environment to ... adapt to him, and a follower changes to adapt to the environment". ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
Loading