Oklahoma Scholar-Leadership Enrichment Program
The Nature of Nurture: What Neuroplasticity and Culture
Mean for Who We Are
May 13-17, 2015 at the University of Oklahoma
Draft
Scholar: Ira Bashkow, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Virginia, bashkow@virginia.edu
Faculty Resource Person: Kermyt (“K.G.”) Anderson, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of
Oklahoma, kganders@ou.edu
Given that people everywhere are so similar in their genetic endowment, it is remarkable how very different they
can be in their lifestyles, tastes, and abilities. Such differences are clearly due to factors of “nurture” rather than
“nature”. Older theories tended to treat nurture as the less significant of the two, in line with its subsidiary
developmental role in all animals. But recent science has yielded new insight into its uniquely broad importance
in humans, showing how this builds upon the innate developmental flexibility of the human brain and neural
systems (neuroplasticity), supporting the singular development of human culture. In this course, we will explore
the meaning of these insights into the nature of nurture. By examining illustrations from varied cultures, history,
and our own lives, we will discuss their implications for creativity and human potential, and seek a new
understanding of humanity and who we are ourselves.
“A devil, a born devil, upon whose nature / Nurture can never stick” –William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Course requirements:
Prepared attendance is crucial to the success of the course, and you should come to class each day ready to
analyze the material, pose questions, try out new ideas, and listen to and challenge the ideas of your classmates
and teachers. The grades “S” and “U” (satisfactory/unsatisfactory) will be used for this seminar. An “S” is the
equivalent of at least a B (not a C). Your grade in the class will be based on your preparation for the class, your
participation in the discussions (both quality and quantity), your written work both before and after the class
meetings, and your participation in all class activities. OSLEP classes are kept small in order to encourage
discussion. Your contribution is essential to the success of the seminar.
Required Pre-Course Reading (supplied as pdf):
1. Read Kathleen Gibson 2005 “Epigenesis, Brain Plasticity, and Behavioral Versatility: Alternatives to
Standard Evolutionary Psychology Models.” In Complexities: Beyond Nature and Nurture. Susan McKinnon and
Sydel Silverman, eds., pp. 23‐42
2. Read Michael Tomasello 1999 The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition chapter 2: “Biological and Cultural
Inheritance,” excerpt: pp. 1-12
Required Pre-Course Reading (Supplied by OSLEP):
1. Sarah Mahler. 2012. Culture as Comfort: Many Things You Know About Culture (But Might Not Realize). Read
chapters 1-3.
2. Joseph Tobin, Yeh Hsueh, Mayumi Karasawa. 2009. Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited: China, Japan, and the
United States. Read chapters 1-5, focusing on pp. 2-4, 19-21, 22-23, 28, 45-51, 58-60, 65-73, 95-96, 100-101,
106-119, 125, 127-140, 154-156, 157-159, 165-168, 178-190, 193-207, 217-220, 224-225, 228-232, and 239-245
3. Bonnie Stone Sunstein and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. 2012. FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research, 4th
edition. Read chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5.
OSLEP Seminar: The Nature of Nurture, May 13-17, 2015, syllabus, p, 2
Pre-Course Assignments: These are to be submitted to the drop boxes on the Desire2Learn site for the class
by 5/12/15
1. On the Gibson and Tomasello chapters—
Write an approximately 2 page long, single-spaced, typed paper summarizing the main concepts and
arguments of these two essays. Without doing any additional reading, how would you describe the views that
these two authors are writing against?
2. On Culture as Comfort—
Write a 2-3 page long, single-spaced, typed paper that uses evidence from Culture as Comfort to evaluate the
following analogy: A human’s brain and nervous system are like a computer’s hardware (e.g., the cpu,
storage, and input-output systems), while the ideas, values, habits, and so on that are a human being’s culture
are like the software (the operating system along with programs or apps) that are designed for the hardware
and “run” on it—more or less well. You should especially try to challenge, criticize, and poke holes in the
analogy: What’s wrong with it? In what ways is it inaccurate and misleading?
3. On Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited—
Write a 2 page long, single-spaced, typed paper comparing the “hidden curricula” of the preschools in Japan
and the U.S. How do the schools compare with one another in the kinds of attitudes, behaviors, and
assumptions they inculcate, whether intentionally and avowedly, or indirectly and implicitly? In particular,
what assumptions do people in the different schools make about what values and behaviors are appropriate
and desirable in children and adults? The best way to write this paper is to first go through the book, collecting
evidence of assumptions that affect the workings of the schools, and then review your collection of evidence
for the items that stand out as especially interesting. Use these items as a resource for composing your paper.
4. FieldWorking—
The method of research described in FieldWorking may be surprising for the way it contrasts with many
commonly-accepted expectations of scientific research, for example, that research should be objective,
impersonal (free of the observer’s personal “bias”), controlled, and quantitative.
Write a short paper, about 1-1/2 pages single-spaced, explaining the most important of these contrasts.
(During the seminar, we will come to see how this type of research connects to the main theme of the course.)
Course Schedule:
Wednesday, May 13, morning
9:30 am Orientation
Emotion check
Introductions
Why are people so different?
Read: James Tabery 2014 Beyond Versus: The Struggle to Understand the Interaction of Nature and Nurture, pp. 1-3
Nature versus nurture, genetic inheritance versus the environment in pop science, culture, and news
Variation-partitioning versus mechanism-elucidation approaches (Tabery)
From versus to interaction, and reconsidering the nature of nurture
Wednesday, May 13, afternoon
The key concepts: plasticity and epigenesis (Katherine Gibson)
Plasticity exercises
Read Robert Thompson 2014 “Brain Development, Cognitive Functioning, and Experience”, in Beyond
Reason and Tolerance, pp. 26-27 (“neurons that fire together wire together”)
Synapses
OSLEP Seminar: The Nature of Nurture, May 13-17, 2015, syllabus, p, 3
Plasticity experiments from Angeline Lillard and Alev Erisir review article
The Brain-Port and the Vest (listen to WNYC RadioLab excerpts)
Held and Hein’s kittens
A rat in a maze
Focal and tacit attention
Wednesday, May 13, evening reading
Read: Jeffrey Elman, et al. 1996 Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development, chapter 1:
“New Perspectives on Development,” pp. 1-19(top third) and pp. 20(bottom)-22
Thursday, May 14, morning
Plasticity, race, and culture in the history of the human sciences (Franz Boas vs. eugenics and vs. the
Lamarckian assumption’s “blind and bland shuttling back and forth” between habits and inheritance)
Emergence of the concept of culture
Read: Ruth Benedict 1934 Patterns of Culture, pp. 12-14
Sarah Mahler chapter 1: definitions of culture
Culture as nonbiological inheritance, and the meaning of “the environment”
Cultural versus biological evolution: shared attention, learning, and the “ratchet effect” (Tomasello)
The emergence of flexibility, adaptiveness, and creativity as key human traits
Thursday, May 14, afternoon
How does culture work?
Disrupted habits exercise
Culture as embodied habit
Read: William Foley 1997 Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction, pp. 8(bottom)-15 and 21-25. This short
reading is extremely difficult but concept-rich and precise. Try to figure out what Foley means by
“structural coupling”, “meaning as enaction”, “culture as embodied practice”, “tacit knowledge”,
“dispositions”, and “habitus” (pp. 13-14, 22). Pages 13-14 and 21-22 are especially rich and important
Compare Foley with Mahler: culture as comfort
Culture and creativity – culture is the new converted to the taken-for-granted
Vocal folds
History of the overbite
Boas’ skulls
Thursday, May 14, evening reading
Read: Claudia Roth Pierpont 2004 “The Measure of America: How a Rebel Anthropologist Waged War on
Racism.” The New Yorker, March 8, pp. 48-63
Friday, May 15, morning and afternoon
How to see and analyze tacit culture and “hidden curricula”: cultural comparison of preschools in Japan,
China, and the U.S.
We will watch and discuss video sequences from the 2009 videorecording associated with the book Preschool
in Three Cultures Revisited, including typical days in the preschools Komatsudani Hoikuen in Japan and St.
Timothy’s Childrens Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA; maybe also from Daguan You’eryuan in China
Friday, May 15, evening reading
Read Ron Scollon and Suzanne Scollon 1981 Athabaskan-English Interethnic Communication. Chapter 2 of
Narrative, Literacy, and Face in Interethnic Communication, pp. 11-37
OSLEP Seminar: The Nature of Nurture, May 13-17, 2015, syllabus, p, 4
Saturday, May 16, morning
Discuss Scollon and Scollon essay
Watch multi-modal interaction studies videos from Lachixío Zapotec (Oaxaca State, Mexico) by Mark Sicoli
FieldWorking book – theory and practice of ethnographic research
Prepare for fieldwork project
Saturday, May 16, afternoon
Fieldwork project – mapping
Saturday, May 16, evening reading
Read: Graeme Wood. 2013. Anthropology Inc. The Atlantic, March 2013, pp. 48-56, at
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/03/anthropology-inc/309218/
Read: Louis Menand 2002 What Comes Naturally? Does Evolution Explain Who We Are? The New Yorker,
Novmber 25, pp. 96-101
Sunday, May 17, morning
Discuss Wood and Menand essays
Beyond nature versus nurture debates: what really is the nature of nurture?
Post-Course Assignment:
The final assignment will be on a topic to be announced during class. It is to be submitted to the proper drop
box on the Desire2Learn class site by May 31, 2015.