The Nacirema tribe has just been exposed to a new custom and some members are st
ID: 3097865 • Letter: T
Question
The Nacirema tribe has just been exposed to a new custom and some members are starting to adopt a new behavior. This custom is hand washing. They have been told that washing their hands will get rid of evil spirits called “germs”. This spirits are invisible, but the wise ancients know they exist. The Nacirima parents have been told that hand washing will increase their children’s survival. Indeed those that wash their hands show a 2/3 probability of surviving from birth to adulthood. Non handwashers show only a 1/3 chance of survival to adulthood. The Nacirema population consists of even numbers of women who: 1) care about child survival and pay attention to things that improve child survival, and 2) women who don’t care about offspring survival or don’t pay much attention to it. The first group has adopted hand washing, the second group has not.
If each adult woman gives birth to an average of 2 female children (ignore the males in the population), and we start with 100 women of each type, WHAT PERCENT OF THE POPULATION WILL BE HAND WASHERS IN 5 GENERATIONS? Can a brain that is indifferent to mortality become common in a population? What does this tell you about the probability of cultural traits being independent of natural selection?
Explanation / Answer
HandWashers = [(100) 2 * (2/3) ] across 5 generations = 632.0987NonWashers = [(100) * 2 * (1/3) ] Across 5 generations = 39.50
Total = 671.60 Percent = 632.0987 / 671.60 = 0.941196 = ~ 94% The questions is poorly phased but I think this is what is being asked.
"The Nacirema tribe?" I suppose there's a reason Nacirema is just the word "American" backwards?
Anyway, this question is telling you that a brain that is indifferent to mortality will not be able to pass on its genes and will therefore die out. Cultural traits are not independent of natural selection they evolve out of necessity.
"The Nacirema tribe?" I suppose there's a reason Nacirema is just the word "American" backwards?
Anyway, this question is telling you that a brain that is indifferent to mortality will not be able to pass on its genes and will therefore die out. Cultural traits are not independent of natural selection they evolve out of necessity.
independent of natural selection they evolve out of necessity.