Snakes and instinct

Posted on Feb 12, 2010 16:10 UTC
My TV friend is dead

Regarding your point about aversion towards reptiles (specifically snakes) to be purely a social construct, I think you are wrong. I myself am not an expert in this, but I can refer you to Descent of Man by Charles Darwin. He refers, at multiple places in the book about constructing his theory with the fact that all the Great Apes (including humans) sharing a common fear of the serpents, as one of his arguments. Although in the case of humans who have developed cognitive abilities during the course of their evolution, this fear might have transformed into some fixation and, to one extreme, even vilification in many cultures. It could be very well that its actually the social construct which has OVERCOME this general instinctive fear of snakes in those exceptional cultures that you have talked about, rather than CREATING that fear in the majority of cultures around the world. Can you share links for the references supporting your view?