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Frontier migration fosters ethos of independence: Deconstructing the climato-economic theory of human culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2013

Stephanie de Oliveira Chen  and
Shinobu Kitayama
Stephanie de Oliveira Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. sdeochen@umich.edu kitayama@umich.edu http://culturalneuroscience.isr.umich.edu
Shinobu Kitayama
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. sdeochen@umich.edu kitayama@umich.edu http://culturalneuroscience.isr.umich.edu
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Abstract

Evidence Van de Vliert draws on is more consistent with the idea that settlement in the frontier encourages independent mentality and individualistic social institutions. This cultural system can sometimes flourish, generating both wealth and power, but clearly not always. In our view, wealth is, for the most part, a measure of success of any given cultural group, and climate is important to the extent that it plays a role in creating rugged lands of frontier.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 5 , October 2013 , pp. 486 - 487
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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