"Cultural Evolution" is more than the scholastic academic tome it appears. In it, David Hays has truly accomplished what his title says, being indeed an homage to Raoul Naroll, who produced some of the most important sociological work of this century.

Naroll, circa 1950-85, was the first to use allometry .. a General Systems Theory approach .. to evaluating and comparing the 'personalities' and developmental strengths of many of the world's diverse cultures. Naroll wrote "The Moral Order" in the early 1980's but did not live to complete publication of the balance of his work and findings. Hays has accomplished that to a great degree, and brings a cognitive clarity to the evaluation of our social choices and legacies rarely found elsewhere, even in the popular literature which touts itself as insightful.

I think the thing I liked most about this book is it's soft spoken style. As the charts and comparisons build throughout, the careful reader suddenly comes to the realization that every culture is like a unique lifeform or species, contributing special qualities and abilities to the human landscape.

In an age of 'globalization' and pan-economic integrations, we seem to be moving headstrong into some sort of homogenized world. That's all well and good since it will probably result in higher quality of life and health and opportunities worldwide, but Hays' "Cultural Evolution" carries a balancing message: the alternative cultures of the world harbor unique insights, worldviews, special competencies, and skills that other cultures have in lesser or greater degree. And no culture has the inside track on 'superiority' ... each is valuable and necessary in support of the 'whole'.

Not only are there evolutionary-like maturing processes present for cultures as a growthspace .. which all societies seem to go through, there is also branching and uniquenesses that different societies accomplish.

If we homogenize these, if we wash them away in the rush to economic efficiency, then we'll lose a storehouse and wealth of human potential, as surely as what happens when any 'species' goes extinct. And there isn't a healthy ecology/economy anywhere that operates on 'absolute uniformity'. That course leads to atrophy and stagnation.

"Cultural Evolution" quietly makes the case that cultural diversity is a survival mechanism of the human organism. We tend to see our differences as threatening or competetive to our own particular ways of life, when in fact, by being different humanity creatively explores what it means 'to be human'.. totally and fully.

This is a hard conceptual jump to make when 'different' has been historically interpreted as 'strange' or 'incompatible'. As people and cultures are more exposed to one another, it's important to retain cultural identities and specialness, and to extend respect and appreciation of dignity to those who are not identical to 'us' ... whichever 'us' you see yourself as.

We're going into the next hundreds and thousands of years needing all the skills and insights we can muster to bring with us. Cultures and languages and alternative views are the tool kit of survival for human beings. It would be arrogant to think that any one culture has it all or knows it all. It would be foolish to disregard what we've struggled millenia to obtain."Cultural Evolution" makes that clear.

We'd better protect all that we have, even if we're unsure of the individual importances or what they may mean in the future. Protecting human diversity is just as important as protecting botanical or biological diversity. For us, for our future, maybe more so