The Inglehart–Welzel cultural map of the world is a scatter plot created by political scientists Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel based on the World Values Survey and European Values Survey It depicts closely linked cultural values that vary between societies in two predominant dimensions: traditional versus secular-rational values on the vertical y-axis and survival versus self-expression values on the horizontal x-axis. Moving upward on this map reflects the shift from traditional values to secular-rational ones and moving rightward reflects the shift from survival values to self-expression values. (source: Wikipedia)
Traditional African societies are located on the bottom left corner, Protestant Europe on the top right corner. My readers will not find it hard to find correspondences with my map:
Traditional = farmer
Secular = hunter-gatherer
Self-Expression = herder
The map is really more like a triangle, as survival values (security, sustenance) are closely associated with farmer space.
If we plot the Inglehart–Welzel cultural map onto our map of human nature, we get a good (albeit imperfect) match. Many African and South Asian countries are very traditional, farmer dominated. Latin America would be somewhat herder dominated (the Conquistadores were mostly herder types). Confucianism can be seen as a mix between farmer/hunter culture and Buddhism, like early Christiantiy is mostly a gatherer culture.
According to the Inglehart–Welzel cultural map protestantism is a hunter-herder fusion (more hunter on my map for reasons that will become obvious later). Let’s compare this with a genetic map of Europe:
The protestant area of the map (green) has high percentages of hunter-gatherer and Yamnaya pastoralists genes, whereas the Catholic part is located mostly in Farmerland (Southern Europe). So, this part of the cultural map coincides perfectly with the genetic map of Europe. Catholicism is located somewhere in the centre of our human map, despite Catholics being renowned for being conservative, so Catholicism should really be more shifted towards Farmerand.
However, if we regard religious history in terms of our map, then it becomes clear that Christianty started out in Gathererland (care, universalism) and then moved toward Farmerland. In order to understand how that happened we have to investigate the dynamics of map relocation, i.e. cultural shift.
Hegel considered history as a dynamic between two opposing forces. He was wrong,it is really three different forces. Still, he was a genius, because he found two opposing forces, very much like our farmers and foragers.
A police state can be seen as a farmer reaction to a real of perceived threat, removing risks and establishing orders by taking power from individuals and putting it in the hands of authority. We can reframe the Heglian dialectic in political terms, calling one force conservative and the opposing force progressive. Most of recorded human history is nothing but seeing those forces play out. Without change, there would be no history.
Most change is initiated by forager types, as they are least adapted to a farmer world. Cultural Dynamic chose a perfect label when they named forager types “pioneers”. We have already seen some of the social changes forager types brought about in history that basically restored hunter-gatherer egalitarianism. This was basically Karl Marx’s insight. The very word revolutionary means a return to (forager values), whereas reactionary is the force opposing (reacting) to the changes.
foragers | farmers | |
slavery | x | ☑ |
beating children | x | ☑ |
male dominance over women | x | ☑ |
conformism required | x | ☑ |
anti-abortion/anti-birth control | x | ☑ |
hierarchical/authoritarian | x | ☑ |
We may consider Marx and Hegel a thing of the past. However, their ideas live on in today’s world of visionaries, influencers and laggards. The difference: today’s battles aren’t fought so much over ideologies anymore as forager types are dwindling in numbers. Both communism and capitalism really started out as ideologies. Both communism and capitalism are mostly materialistic nowadays. Just about the only thing that is communist about China is its collectivism (which isn’t really the core of communism, but a peripheral phenomenon). China is more capitalist than the West and the West (especially Europe) is often more communist than China. Russia has long become a competitive herder driven hyper-capitalist economy that lacks the free market ideology of hunter capitalism. Higher levels of materialism and less idealism is a sign of Foragerland slowly disappearing from the human nature map.
Let’s turn to our world of having the latest cool thing, though. The adoption cycle is usually represented by the following divisions
Historically (technical) innovators have mostly been hunter types (from the person who invented the wheel to Edisson, Tesla and Hedy Lamarr). The first early adopters are typically forager types, who are more interested in future potential than practical value (i.e. money, status, etc.). Then there is the chasm, the line between foragers and farmer-herders, followed by herders (prospectors) who are opportunists who have become aware of the innovation’s potential. Last come the farmers, who hold on to their tried and true tradition for as long as possible and who do not perceive any need for change. On the contrary, they fear it. When I bought my first smartphone, most of my farmer acquaintances ridiculed me a bit for buying the latest tech-toy once again. I didn’t mind, because I was sure that it wouldn't take too long for them to own one too. Not before vilifying the new technology, however, when teenagers all started to adopt them as they were the latest trend.
Of course it is a gross generalisation, but the adoption cycle plots quite neatly onto our map. There are always some remaining non-adopters. Ironically, those are most likely forager types again as they neither see a need to be cool (herder) or conformist (famer). A forager friend of mine has resisted to this day to sign up for any kind of social medium.
So, change, especially fast, revolutionary change is often driven by forager types. This is not only true for technological innovation (hunter domain), but also for more gatherer dominated areas like social justice and arctic avantgardism.
Our Western world has become crazy about innovation. Herder types adopt it because it’s the latest craze, even conservative farmer types love it, because it can make money.
The tough thing for any forager innovator: the innovation has to be supported by herder and farmer types, else it will never be anything more than a short blip in history.
This is basically how our Western World ended up as the WEIRDEST culture of all. Joe Henrich’s amazing finding was that apart from Western cultures hunter gatherers are WEIRD like us (I would even say WEIRDER than us - which of course as a forager type I consider a good thing):
Mobile hunter-gatherers, who possess extensive (not intensive) kin-based institutions, are field independent. Consistent with this, anthropologists have long argued that, compared to farmers and herders who have more intensive kin-based institutions, hunter-gatherers emphasize values that focus on independence, achievement, and self-reliance while deemphasizing obedience, conformity, and deference to authority.
This is not where our story ends. For things to remain the same, everything must change - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Each tribe will be more or less comfortable with change and initiate change again when the situation is uncomfortable.
Let’s return to the Protestant revolution. Why did it happen? We know that Protestantism is most closely located in hunter-herder space. Protestantism brought huge progress in education (a hunter-gatherer value) as well as a huge boost in individual competition and capitalism (herder values). We also know that hunters (visionaries) initiated the Reformation, but what triggered it?
What triggered the Reformation was the farmerization of Catholicism. Christianity started out very much in Gathererland (see above) and spread very quickly through forager types in the Roman Empire. Early Christianity was very egalitarian, with a shallow hierarchy, the deeper the hierarchy became the more Christianty shifted towards Farmerland.
What was Luther so mad about? Selling indulgences, i.e. making money from the poor sinners and repenters. Business, a corrupted one. Of course, indulgences were only the tip of the iceberg that had become very different from its origins. What was Luther’s main idea? Revolution - a return to the Christiantiy of the Bible. Ironically evangelical protestantism has become - especially in the US - a symbol of conservatism. That means prostatism relocated from Hunterland to Farmerland.
This is how history repeats itself and how it progresses. History is both cyclic and progressive, a spiral. But it will spiral for only as long as there will be forager types.
Markus Jokela (2012) has found in a study that since the availability of the pill
Higher levels of openness to experience in both sexes and higher levels of conscientiousness in women were associated with lower fertility [...]
The reasons why forager types are slowly disappearing from the human nature map can be found in our very map. As we live in a farmer's world farmers have the values that produce the most sustainable offspring (not necessarily the most offspring).
Forager types are the highest on self-actualization and often find children an obstacle, or they find it too hard to have children when having a farmer job is tough enough. Many foragers types have also told me that they find it irresponsible to have children in a cold and cruel world like ours.
We have only one world, one planet for all tribes. Elon Musk is aware of that and many of the implications. He has got a Plan B. Let’s hope we will never need a Plan B. In an increasing materialistic world nobody should forget that it has always been hunter-gatherer egalitarianism that has made life better for everyone. We should hang on to it. It’s cool and should never go out of fashion, it’s a badge of honour, it’s moral and it’s a tradition (at least in WEIRD countries).
Check out my latest book for more background information:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LSF98WV
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