快猫短视频

SERPENTS ARE IN the magician鈥檚 dream, transfigured from real-life snakes.
They are the wild creatures most frequently conjured up in dreams and
drug-induced hallucinations. Coming with ease to Zulu and Manhattanite alike,
serpents are powerful images of human fantasy, flesh-and-blood snakes
transformed into flickering images of the subconscious mind. There, they are
conjured up variously as predators, menacing demons, guardians of a hidden
world, oracles, spirits of the dead and gods, depending on the culture and
experience of the individual dreamer.

To genetic evolution, the human lineage has added the parallel track of
cultural evolution, and these two forms of evolution are linked. Culture is
created by the communal mind, and each mind in turn is the product of the
genetically structured human brain. But the linkage between genes and culture is
flexible, to a degree still mostly unmeasured. The linkage is also
tortuous鈥攇enes prescribe epigenetic rules, which are the neural pathways
and regularities in cognitive development by which the individual mind assembles
itself. The mind grows from birth to death by absorbing parts of the existing
culture available to it, with selections guided through epigenetic rules
inherited by the individual brain.

To visualise the coevolution of genes and culture more concretely, consider
the example of snakes and dream serpents. Poisonous snakes have been an
important source of mortality in almost all societies throughout human
evolution. Close attention to them, enhanced by dream serpents and the symbols
of culture, undoubtedly improves the chances of survival. The innate tendency to
react with both fear and fascination toward snakes is the epigenetic rule.
Culture draws on that fear and fascination to create metaphors and
narratives.

As part of gene-culture coevolution, culture is reconstructed by each
generation collectively in the minds of individuals. When oral tradition is
supplemented by writing and art, culture can grow indefinitely and it can even
skip generations. But the fundamental biasing influence of the epigenetic rules,
being genetic and ineradicable, stays constant. So, the prominence of dream
serpents in the legends and art of the Amazonian shamans enriches their culture
across generations under the guidance of the serpentine epigenetic rule.

Lessons of time

Some individuals inherit epigenetic rules which enable them to survive and
reproduce better in the surrounding environment and culture than individuals who
lack those rules, or at least possess them to a lesser extent. By this means,
over many generations, the more successful epigenetic rules have spread through
the population along with the genes that prescribe the rules. As a consequence
the human species has evolved genetically by natural selection in behaviour,
just as it has in the anatomy and physiology of the brain.

Certain cultural norms also survive and reproduce better than others, causing
culture to evolve in a track parallel to, and usually much faster than, genetic
evolution. The quicker the pace of cultural evolution, the looser the connection
between genes and culture, although the connection is never completely broken.
Culture allows a rapid adjustment to changes in the environment through finely
tuned adaptations invented and transmitted without correspondingly precise
genetic prescription. In this respect human beings differ fundamentally from all
other animal species.

The frequency with which serpent symbols and dream serpents inhabit a culture
corresponds to the abundance of real poisonous snakes in the environment. But
owing to the power of fear and fascination given them by the epigenetic rule,
they acquire additional mythic meaning: they serve in different cultures
variously as healers, messengers, demons and gods.