What does it mean to be a product of your environment?

Answer 1

It is cyclical, you see.

First, one must ask, what is environment? Environment is everything around you. Classically, it is the trees, the grass, the bugs. But culturally, it is your television, your computer, your shoes, the poster on your wall, your religious beliefs, and the dye in your hair.

Who produced this environment? You did. We did. Be you a member of a small village in the most remote part of South America or a British university student trying to decide if Anthropology is a good degree for you to pursue, you are a conscious being who has chosen your environment, how to interact with it, and how to manipulate it. You have produced your environment. ("You" here is meant collectively--your people, ancestors, or culture, if you will.)

We produce the environment, and in turn, the environment produces us. Just as the environment is limited and changed by our presence, we are limited and changed by what our environment has to offer (not to mention our own hang-ups, of course). A basic comparrison: We produce our environment when we errect buildings, cut down trees, or build parks. Our environment produces us when it determines which crops are best cultivated in particular areas, when we see an ad on television and decide we want the shampoo the beautiful models use, and when we go to church to worship because that is just what people do. These examples encompass both natural environments and cultural environments, which are both integral in the act of producing you.

The little I have typed here barely even touches on the topic. For more indepth answers to this, I would suggest looking at any basic anthro theory text. For starters, and for your reading and learning pleasure, I suggest The Invention of Culture by Roy Wagner.

Answer 2

Nothing, as it is an erroneous concept that happens to be still acceptable in the social sciences. The genotype is expressed into the phenotype. Nature via nurture. No one can be " a product of his environment "; alone.

Answer 3

It means the person you are is the result of the environment in which you were raised.

Answer 4

Whatever isn't traceable to your DNA can be attributed to your environment? Fair answer? Culture, styles, education, accent, prejudices (although sexual preference probably is in DNA for the most part),

Answer 5

In terms of evolution, the area you live in provides certain environmental selection pressures. These are factors which not only change who you are as an individual but also in the long term scale, it affects you as a member of a species.

Answer 6

Your environment shapes your thinking.

Answer 7

It means that one's beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and values, are those that have resulted, not from crtitial reflection, but rather these things have resulted from having been inculcated and immersed--uncounciously or unintentionally--from exposure to a given context.

Answer 8

To me it means growing up to think and behave in the manner of the people you grew up around, lived with, went to school with, worked with, etc.