Читать книгу An Introduction to Intercultural Communication - Fred E. Jandt - Страница 12

How, then, did so many distinct human identities develop? Climate changes and other pressures led to migrations out of Africa. The first wave may have been along the coastline of southern Asia through southern India into Australia. The second wave may have traveled to the Middle East, and from there, one branch went to India and a second to China. Those who left the Middle East for Europe may have actually traveled first through central Asia and then throughout the world to other parts of Asia, Russia, the Americas, and Europe (Wells, 2002). Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio (2010) contends that our world, our environment, is so complex and so varied on the planet that diverse social networks developed to regulate life so that we could survive. Centuries of geographical separation led to the development of diverse social network regulators of human life. These social network regulators of human life over the history of humanity have been the basis for ways of understanding the world, for beliefs, and for shared individual identities, which at times resulted in confrontations and conflicts between groups. Understanding these identities and the resulting confrontations explains our past, provides insights about the present, and predicts our future. Sir David Cannadine (2013) posits six forms of regulators of human life and identity: religion, nation, class, gender, race, and civilization.

Generational transmission of important cultural rituals provides cultural continuity through the ages.

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