From DNA to Culture

About the Book

FROM DNA TO CULTURE: The Synthesis Principle in Human Development Ralph M. Goldman Professor Emeritus of Political Science San Francisco State University Adjunct Professor of Politics The Catholic University of America CONTENTS Preface: The Synthesis Principle 1. Biochemistry in Evolution 2. Information and Communication: The Fundamental Synthesizers 3. Language as the Information Multiplier 4. Roles as Builders of Human Personality 5. Decision Making as a Product of Role Structure 6. Cooperation, Institutions, and Behavior 7. Leaders as Specialized Decision-Makers 8. Society’s Groups as Socializers 9. Goals and Cybernetic Systems 10. Behavioral Transactions 11. Synthesis through Conflict Processes 12. The Synthesis Principle in American Culture: A Case Illustration Appendix. The Synthesis Principle in International Development *** According to Charles Darwin, evolutionary development is not some process with a high purpose invented by a human mind or generated by a supernatural being or force. Rather, evolutionary development is the consequence of the simple pragmatic survival of species, including the human, influenced by environmental conditions and natural selection among species members. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, synthesis is “the combining of separate elements or substances to form a coherent whole.” The Synthesis Principle, as employed here, is the combining of separate elements or substances—whether the chemical compounds that created RNA and DNA or the behaviors of human beings in social cultures—to form a new and coherent whole. Synthesis has, since primordial times, led disparate elements to come together to produce a next phase in evolution. Thus, the physical sciences are not the only explorers of evolution. The social sciences also have something to say about evolution and its Synthesis Principle. Many of the social science concepts and theories explaining human behavior are, in fact, manifestations of the Synthesis Principle. Thus, cultures are the contemporary end products in a chain of developmental events that begin in the synthesizing biochemistry of the earliest life forms. Early life forms evolved through adaptation and addition of new elements that eventually became the human race. When Darwin wrote of the survival of the fittest, “fittest” undoubtedly meant those who maintained or elaborated upon the biochemical and physical patterns that best responded to surrounding environmental conditions, and survived. Social behavior added to the biochemical and physical antecedents. And among humans, cultures are those standards of conduct that provide the environment for the possible survival of the human species. Cultural codes are human inventions intended to bring together guidelines for improving the possibility of a collective human future. Between “earliest life forms” and contemporary “human cultures” lie connections—synthesis after synthesis, tier upon tier— that added to and integrated a previous stage of species development. The aim of this book is to describe what may have been critical patterns of change that occurred along the way. As we shall see, there are grounds for a growing inclusiveness and regularity at each succeeding stage of human evolution despite disjunctive impediments such as injustice and warfare that appear almost daily in our lives. In essence, early patterns arose with the synthesis of nitrogen and other elements into amino acids and amino acids into proteins. Bases and acids became part of the RNA (ribonucleic acid) that eventually became an agent creating and influencing DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). DNA sythesized with those compounds that continued the communication of information. A threshold was passed as information contained in DNA was communicated to new generations of cells. From the outset, chance and error-induced mutations were major influences in how these initial patterns arose. If the mu

About the Author

RALPH M. GOLDMAN es Doctor en Ciencias Políticas por la Universidad de Chicago. Durante su carrera profesional ha estado vinculado a la enseñanza, la investigación, la administración académica y el ejercicio político. Su biografía completa se encuentra en la Who’s Who in America. Es autor y co-autor de más de una docena de libros. En su estudio “De la Guerra a la Política Partidaria” (From Warfare to Party Politics, Syracuse University Press) se interesó en la relación entre los presidentes mexicanos Plutarco Calles y Lázaro Cárdenas. Esta novela dramatiza este vínculo y su trágica conclusión.