: : (snip)political goals more than they value food, albeit not for long. All cultures have had eating as part of the repertoire of cultural ritual, simply because the cultures that have survived (or that have been revived for any period of time) are composed of human beings who eat. It bears no relevance to cultural design, which can (as the above examples show) go the other way.: All this is jolly interesting, it doesnt really counter that if a group wanted survival as their primary they would seek to keep what advantages they had over another group who could only gain by taking from them.
SDF: Just as there is no natural law requiring cultures to survive, there is no natural law requiring that survival be obtained through "comparative advantage," or in fact through any type of competition. Have you any solid evidence to the contrary, that ALL cultures are required to pursue a relentless competition, in the form of homo homini lupus as described in Hobbes, in order to survive? There are still pacifist cultures on the planet, ask NJ. And as I have pointed out, desiring survival may be a "natural" urge, but this is hardly of any consequence when one is enculturated. Desiring "comparative advantage" follows the same non-rule.
