Corn Culture

Corn CultureA Story of Intelligent Design Jude Todd (bio) In these days of ubiquitous debate about "intelligent design" and neo Darwinian conceptions of evolution, it's hard to avoid the topic. I try to avoid it, though, because my beliefs about how the Earth's inhabitants got to be as they are differ from those of the die-hards in both camps. I believe that new species arise and change over time and that some of this evolution has been the result of random mutations contributing to an organism's fitness for its environment and ability to pass on its genes. But I doubt that most of the mutating has been the result of chance; rather, the organisms themselves have played important roles in inducing both the genetic mutations and other heritable changes that would help them function in their environments. And in some cases, humans have been a key component of the environment that fosters such changes. While not an ardent believer in neo-Darwinism, I'm also unimpressed by the prevailing concept of "intelligent design," which implies the existence of one monolithic intelligent Designer. Thinking of my own species, for example: If humans' Designer were so smart, surely we wouldn't destroy the air, water, food, and energy supplies that are necessary for our own existence. Surely we wouldn't be so stupid—or so greedy—as to hoard resources for our short-term gain at the expense of others and at the expense of our own long-term well-being. Perhaps the problem stems from the design of the human body, whose elaborate neural network is directed by a brain sporting hefty frontal lobes. While our nervous system prompts us to seek comfort and pleasure and avoid pain, our frontal lobes allow us to rationalize our behavior so that we can deceive ourselves—and sometimes others— [End Page 471] into believing that even selfish actions are altruistic or at least rational. This unique combination of neural fibers induces us to harm others to protect ourselves while believing our actions to be justified. Protecting ourselves from pain and seeking pleasure too often morphs into valuing ourselves (the bodies that we're neurologically wired into) more than others (the bodies that we're not neurologically wired into). In short, our neurocortical design spawns greed. And greed destroys worlds—ask any Pueblo Indian. For untold centuries Pueblo Indians have been acutely aware of the destructive potential of greed, so they have designed cultures that curtail the human tendency toward unmitigated selfishness. Let's look at a Hopi myth and then a Zuni one, both excellent examples of cultural products that extol humility and gratitude and warn against the dangers of greed. These ancient myths are as relevant to our twenty-first-century, hi-tech, genetically sophisticated lives as they have always been to the Pueblo people. Both myths feature corn, an extremely important plant, the design/evolution of which I'll return to shortly. Both the Hopi and Zuni believe that the world has been cyclically created, destroyed, and re-created. Each destruction was the result of human greed. According to the Hopi, we now live in the Fourth World (and some say we're coming to the end of it). Hopi mythology tells of a time after the end of the Third World when most people had died; however, some people, including some Hopi, had been spared, kept safely inside the body of Mother Earth until the Earth's surface was again habitable. When the Earth was ready, these humans emerged. They met a being named Masaw, who was tilling the soil. Masaw offered the groups of people different kinds of corn by which they might make their livelihood in this new Fourth World. While others grabbed for the biggest ears of corn, the Hopi deliberately chose the smallest ear of blue corn. The wise old Hopi ancestors' selection of the little ear of blue corn symbolizes their intent to live a life that would be hard—their harvest would be small for their efforts—but enduring. These ancient Hopi had observed that there are dangers inherent in an easy lifestyle. People become complacent, take their abundance for

Aesthetics · Biology · Darwinism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Evolutionary biology · Function (biology · Intelligent design · Key (lock · Organism · Sociology · Survival of the fittest · Term (time · Bioeconomy and Sustainability Development · Computer Science · Ecology · Genetically Modified Organisms Research · Genetics · Philosophy

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