(07-21-2013, 12:55 AM)Kyatai Wrote: One simply MUST integrate the environmental & cultural aspects, traditions, religion, morals and mores and so on into the equation. For it is THAT that shapes 'who' and 'what' we are....You've opened this can of worms, so you're going to have to deal with it.
At least in my opinion. But this is the simple 'nature vs nurture' argument that still persists today. Even among anthropologists.(esp between evolutionary and cultural anthropologists!) But I digress.
It's actually a combination of both. How you react to and process certain situations is largely determined by a combination of past experiences and your own genetic predispositions that move you towards certain conclusions. For example: some people who suffer traumatic childhood experiences become killers as adults; other people, for whatever reason, do not. You simply cannot divorce nature from nurture as that is oversimplifying the facts of the matter.
Experience, or nurture, whichever, is most likely the more important of the two, I will note. People who have a predisposition towards becoming murderers and/or serial killers are actually perfectly capable of living a healthy and productive life, provided that the environment they were born and raised in wasn't a destructive one (and this is one reason I am not a proponent of the current punishment-justice system, but I digress). However, that predisposition is always there, and it still manifests itself in some pretty interesting ways - for example, the aforementioned potential killers will display a noticeable lack of empathy towards other human beings, even when they are behaving quite amiably.
This means that, if, for example, your character was born in an environment that was harsh, unforgiving, and heavy with violence, they are not necessarily guaranteed to reciprocate with more violence. They might simply withdraw. They might give up. They might defend themselves, but only against aggressors. Or, indeed, they may become terrifying, remorseless killers. That all depends on many things. It's never a clear-cut "this happened, therefore X character is going to become this". You can draw up a chain of events, but once you change the foundation, that chain is unlikely to apply to another.
Annnd that's that. I hope this was informative to someone.
