This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Do modern descendants of Mesoamericans have better alcoholism resistance than modern descendants of North American natives? The Mesoamericans, after all, were not hunter-gatherers, they had advanced civilizations that were perhaps roughly at the scientific/technological level of the Mediterranean civilizations of about 1000 BC.
I don't have any numbers but there's probably a reason you don't hear anything about similar utter devastation that's common in North American natives and Australian Aboriginals communities.
AFAIK more or less every human farming civilization has developed alcohol so most of the people in those who were at very high risk of alcohol dependency simply died off centuries or millenia ago and the rest developed physical and cultural resistance mechanisms.
Some Native American hunter-gatherers used alcohol too, but it's probably easier for farmers to make in large quantities I suppose.
There might also be a factor, though, of greater social disruption leading to the greater alcohol abuse by North American natives as opposed to Mesoamerican natives. That's if there actually is higher abuse, of course. The Mesoamericans went through very profound social disruption, but most of them went from being farmers working for native elites to being farmers working for Spanish elites. Many of the North American natives, on the other hand, were forced entirely off their lands, killed, or "just" had their original ways of life almost entirely ended.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
The Maya certainly have less of a reputation for alcoholism than the Cherokee.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link