Got Milk? How Freedoms Evolved From Dairying Climates
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In: Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 49, No. 7, 01.08.2018, p. 1048-1065.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Got Milk?
T2 - How Freedoms Evolved From Dairying Climates
AU - Van de Vliert, Evert
AU - Welzel, Christian
AU - Shcherbak, Andrey
AU - Fischer, Ronald
AU - Alexander, Amy
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2018.
PY - 2018/8/1
Y1 - 2018/8/1
N2 - The roots and routes of cultural evolution are still a mystery. Here, we aim to lift a corner of that veil by illuminating the deep origins of encultured freedoms, which evolved through centuries-long processes of learning to pursue and transmit values and practices oriented toward autonomous individual choice. Analyzing a multitude of data sources, we unravel for 108 Old World countries a sequence of cultural evolution reaching from (a) ancient climates suitable for dairy farming to (b) lactose tolerance at the eve of the colonial era to (c) resources that empowered people in the early industrial era to (d) encultured freedoms today. Historically, lactose tolerance peaks under two contrasting conditions: cold winters and cool summers with steady rain versus hot summers and warm winters with extensive dry periods (Study 1). However, only the cold/wet variant of these two conditions links lactose tolerance at the eve of the colonial era to empowering resources in early industrial times, and to encultured freedoms today (Study 2). We interpret these findings as a form of gene-culture coevolution within a novel thermo-hydraulic theory of freedoms.
AB - The roots and routes of cultural evolution are still a mystery. Here, we aim to lift a corner of that veil by illuminating the deep origins of encultured freedoms, which evolved through centuries-long processes of learning to pursue and transmit values and practices oriented toward autonomous individual choice. Analyzing a multitude of data sources, we unravel for 108 Old World countries a sequence of cultural evolution reaching from (a) ancient climates suitable for dairy farming to (b) lactose tolerance at the eve of the colonial era to (c) resources that empowered people in the early industrial era to (d) encultured freedoms today. Historically, lactose tolerance peaks under two contrasting conditions: cold winters and cool summers with steady rain versus hot summers and warm winters with extensive dry periods (Study 1). However, only the cold/wet variant of these two conditions links lactose tolerance at the eve of the colonial era to empowering resources in early industrial times, and to encultured freedoms today (Study 2). We interpret these findings as a form of gene-culture coevolution within a novel thermo-hydraulic theory of freedoms.
KW - Politics
KW - climato-economic
KW - encultured freedoms
KW - gene-culture coevolution
KW - lactose tolerance
KW - thermo-hydraulic theory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048888454&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/397f0698-1364-357e-9d0d-e85a51d870eb/
U2 - 10.1177/0022022118778336
DO - 10.1177/0022022118778336
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 30100622
AN - SCOPUS:85048888454
VL - 49
SP - 1048
EP - 1065
JO - Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
JF - Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
SN - 0022-0221
IS - 7
ER -