Genetics and Culture:
The physical well-being of man and populations in general are unquestionably related to nature and nurture processes of energy. This is applicable to all living beings as all are energy source derivatives. However, health and disease is also a phenomenon by and large attributed to geography and environment. Man stands apart fro the rest of living beings as he is governed by culture and is defined as man made environment for his well-being and better survival. As a result, several bio-social modifications have been set in depending upon his habitat such as, plains, forest, mountain, desert and cold and temperate zones. Hence, Man is said to be Global in distribution living through his culture and society. Though genetic fitness is mandatory for man’s survival well-being but the cultural ways of humans seem to have reduced fitness in relation modernity with emerging cultural technologies.
Health and Disease:
Human cultural and genetic processes are not cohesive and hand in glove as the biological processes and their occurring in physical nature are slow while cultural processes in their creation and their spread are very fast. This results in a state of dis balance between the two, ie, biology and culure and thus results in disease more than being healthy. And this deviation demands more medical technology to combat the human situation. Today, the health and well-being is thrown on artificial technologies of man rather than natural well-being. Thus, we are at helpless, hopeless and dependent situation and find ourselves at cross-roads of health. However, we need to consider these problems in holistic view and find an alternative strategy to co-exist with the nature.
Modern Medicine and its Status:
Today, we work on human genomic medicine but finding no appreciable results. It is a matter of great interest to see through the facts of science that the popular notion of the double helix (DNA) being the main and the only player of cellular and genetic information and mechanism is quite flawed in the background of the role of environment. Further, the gene and its role in expression is hotly debated even today and remains an unsettled question in science as hidden gene expression is strongly related to the environment and culture. Just like our cultural horoscope, there is also a similar genetic horoscope that works on genetic industry of testing in relation to a person’s culture and environment and thus go for genomic modern medicine, but proves to be futile in reaching to the specific and common man. Thus, the very subject matter of human genetics is at cross-roads as man’s artificial cultural technologies of today go against the fundamental theory of ‘natural selection’ as both biological and cultural matters are colliding with each other in the evolutionary processes of man in particular when compared with other beings.
Cultural Trap:
Humans are undoubtedly in cultural trap of its evolving technologies and the nature can not intervene nor fish them out. Man has to moderate his technology and live in nature harmoniously. Otherwise, humans are definitely at the cross-roads and may choose or face the death trap of the culture, ie. human extinction. Time is ripe to change the cultural ways of human living with all wisdom, dignity and decorum.
