0
Stenka25 Posted 11 years ago
Vocabulary
What 'miasma' refers to?
What 'miasma' refers to?
The passage below is from ‘the Blank Slate’ by Steven Pinker.
http://evolbiol.ru/blankslate/blankslate.htm
Different cultures, then, don't come from different kinds of genes — Boas and his heirs were right about that — but they don't live in a separate world or stamp a shape onto formless minds either.
The first step in connecting culture to the sciences of human nature is to recognize that culture, for all its importance, is not some miasma that seeps into people through their skin. Culture relies on neural circuitry that accomplishes the feat we call learning. Those circuits do not make us indiscriminate mimics but have to work in surprisingly subtle ways to make the transmission of culture possible.
In this passage I cannot figure out the meaning of underlined 'miasma' in this context.
In Wikipedia, 'miasma' is "a contagious power ... that has an independent life of its own. Until purged by the sacrificial death of the wrongdoer, society would be chronically infected by catastrophe."
The word has a negative connotation in Wikipedia's description, but does not have any in this context in question.
I know my question is not well-posed and specific.
But I wish to know why Steven Pinker used this word in this context.
Hope for your replies.
Regards.
The passage below is from ‘the Blank Slate’ by Steven Pinker.
http://evolbiol.ru/blankslate/blankslate.htm
Different cultures, then, don't come from different kinds of genes — Boas and his heirs were right about that — but they don't live in a separate world or stamp a shape onto formless minds either.
The first step in connecting culture to the sciences of human nature is to recognize that culture, for all its importance, is not some miasma that seeps into people through their skin. Culture relies on neural circuitry that accomplishes the feat we call learning. Those circuits do not make us indiscriminate mimics but have to work in surprisingly subtle ways to make the transmission of culture possible.
In this passage I cannot figure out the meaning of underlined 'miasma' in this context.
In Wikipedia, 'miasma' is "a contagious power ... that has an independent life of its own. Until purged by the sacrificial death of the wrongdoer, society would be chronically infected by catastrophe."
The word has a negative connotation in Wikipedia's description, but does not have any in this context in question.
I know my question is not well-posed and specific.
But I wish to know why Steven Pinker used this word in this context.
Hope for your replies.
Regards.
Top answer
Apparently, he believes that culture is not some noxious gas in the atmosphere that permeates people. It is not bad, but neutral, and is transmitted by learning within a society. Definitions of miasma: 1.
- Apparently, he believes that culture is not some noxious gas in the atmosphere that permeates people.
- It is not bad, but neutral, and is transmitted by learning within a society.
- Definitions of miasma: 1.
- an unwholesome or oppressive atmosphere 2.
- pollution in the atmosphere, esp noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
1 Answers
0
Apparently, he believes that culture is not some noxious gas in the atmosphere that permeates people.
It is not bad, but neutral, and is transmitted by learning within a society.
Definitions of miasma:
1. an unwholesome or oppressive atmosphere
2. pollution in the atmosphere, esp noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter
It is not bad, but neutral, and is transmitted by learning within a society.
Definitions of miasma:
1. an unwholesome or oppressive atmosphere
2. pollution in the atmosphere, esp noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter
0
Related Questions