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foospork t1_j5kjro5 wrote

Reply to comment by Evng5001 in "Understand the philosophy of a place and you'll understand its culture" | Julian Baggini explores how to approach non-Western philosophies, without exoticizing, essentalising or domesticating by IAI_Admin

Are you familiar with the theory of “jungle” culture vs. “desert” culture? It popped up in the media about 25 years ago.

The general idea is that if life is relatively easy (jungle culture), you end up with “honor-based” cultures, where people are very motivated by the perceptions of others.

In desert culture, life is very hard, so the culture tends to value pragmatism over appearance. (Note that cold, icy climate would be considered “desert” culture. Desert culture is just a way of saying “an environment that will kill you in an instant if you let your guard down. Food and shelter are not easy to come by.”)

It’s an interesting theory. It may have been ripped apart since the 90s, but, because it confirmed my own observations, I kinda liked it. (In the 1980s I worked with a lot of Americans, South Asians, East Asians, Arabs, Brits, and Scandinavians.)

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Arow_Thway_ t1_j5ltib7 wrote

Interesting. I saw a different mode that proposed cultures of honor were typically more associated with pastoral nomadism, which would be more like a desert culture in your metaphor.

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cornonthekopp t1_j5nqefs wrote

It sounds like environmental determinism with a fresh coat of paint tbh

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AlreadyFrebrelizing t1_j5nrylp wrote

Well yeah it’s just a way of describing 2 types of environments and how they determine human behavior

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UnicornPanties t1_j5mg7ex wrote

I wonder if this explains why my foreign colleague had no honor.

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foospork t1_j5mkz4f wrote

With unicorn panties on the table, what were they to do? I’d do a lot of dishonorable things for unicorn panties. (Who am I kidding? I HAVE done dishonorable things for unicorn panties.)

Joking aside, I always try to be careful judging individuals by group tendencies. Doing otherwise is a slippery slope.

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Evng5001 t1_j5og05u wrote

Thanks for sharing, I didn't know that before. My family members are from different countries having different culture background, I tried to understand their behavior and things they taught me, sometimes they were totally different.

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