Originally Posted by
joesixpack
I have to ask (and I'm not a Marxist fundamentalist), what do cultural mores arise from except economic issues? It seems to me that it would be impossible to separate the economic implications from every social interaction. Certainly any power relationship, and anything that reenforces an existing relationship is ultimately economic in nature? Am I missing something?
So you think every cultural quirk or practice had some initial economic value?
Evolution doesn't work quite so purely. Sometimes disadvantageous things evolve, genetically and culturally.
Take for example, the human brain evolving to see relationships where sometimes only coincidence exists. That genetic survival trait might be useful in some circumstances but maladaptive in others. Is it not possible then for some maladaptive custom to evolve?