What I considered after I finished reading the chapter and the article related to cultural neuroscience was that there is no way for us to escape from the culture we grew up and live in because its effects on people are concrete. In other words, a culture and what it brings with itself, such as norms, rules and beliefs are not only concepts we learn, internalize and take into account before our actions, but also experiences which alter our brain and genes. To be honest, until this week, I had never approached the topic of culture from the perspective of neuroscience whose main focus is on the relationship between culture and neurobiological systems. With this new point of view, it can be easily said that both how I define culture and my opinions on the influence of culture on people changed. First of all, when it comes to the way I previously described culture, I would summarize it as a set of learned customs and ideas which organize a society social-wise. Nevertheless, it seems that culture’s power in organizing is not solely restricted to the social realm based on the fact that perception, attention and memory formation are tied to from which culture we are (Kitayama et al., 2019; Leger, 2024). In addition to this, I have reached the realization of how connected culture is to evolution. Since I heavily evaluated the notion of culture in a social manner, I always considered its impact on social hierarchy, assigning roles to the people, according to their social groups, and determining whether individuals in specific cultures prioritize their “selves” or others. However, as mentioned in the handbook, human-beings started digesting lactose with gene mutation resulting from the initiation of herding and milk production which makes me comprehend the survival value of culture. Culture does not transpire in one day. Culture is not continued as it is because it has been embraced and accepted for such a long time. Particular cultural features become “a thing” because our biology is programmed in line with them, and they help us survive.
Secondly, seeing to what extent culture affects people’s neurobiology led me to question whether we have control over culture or not. I think we, humans, sometimes are prone to trick ourselves into believing that we are free and independent from our environment. We assume that we are able to reject and not to obey some dimensions of culture, like stereotypes and roles. Yet, is it really the case? Given that the gene called DRD4 causes its carriers to be susceptible to acknowledge and absorb the norms in their surroundings (Kitayama et al., 2019, it felt that our culture shapes our lives and decisions more than we thought it would.
Lastly, I might be too naïve to consider that but cultural neuroscience may be utilized in order for people to be more tolerant of other cultures. In my view, this field possesses a weapon which could decrease the prejudice of individuals toward distinct cultures, as it deals with the influence of culture on the brain, epigenetic and brain in which we have no say and control. Perceiving some differences between societies as natural instead of people’s choices could make bring different cultures closer.
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