Human culture is about survival of the friendliest, says anthropologist John Edward Terrell – and Westerners could learn from more traditional societies
You say that friendliness, rather than savageness, is what marks us out as a species...
People often have a grim view of what it means to be human. There's this conception that inside each of us is a Mr Hyde – an evilness that's dying to get out – and also that we can't trust strangers. This resonates with the view that at the beginning of human time we were able to survive pretty much alone or in small family groups. Supposedly we've been trying ever since then to overcome this dubious primal heritage by devising state-like organisations to control our nasty inner selves.
Yet it's pretty clear that we cannot survive on our own. Our personalities and our knowledge are so tied up in our relationships with others. ...
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