First is the idea that an infant, born into a more advanced culture and presented with a greater number of entrenched cultural opportunities, is certain to garner a greater level of intelligence. The opposite, and equal argument, is that innate intelligence is best developed in the infant born into a culture more holistically and intuitively developed, perhaps even "primitive" by some standards. And yet, the issue of culture ultimately can be reduced to "nurture vs nature" as well. The cultural implications and training that surround a child's upbringing are certainly key components in how that child will be nurtured throughout childhood. Herbert (1997) points out that in many ways the view of mental illness as a brain disease has been of vital importance in the work to reduce the stigma of frightening and misunderstood illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression. And yet, it still serves as an example of the broad-based efforts to "biologize" American culture. For both political and scientific reasons -- and it is generally difficult to separate the two -- everything from criminal behavior to substance abuse to sexual orientation is seen today less as a matter of choice than of genetic destiny. Even basic personality is proving out to be much more of a genetic inheritance than had ever been previously assumed. Almost every month, if not more often, there is a report of a new gene for one trait or another. Such a significant realignment of the cultural perception has numerous political and personal implications. At the individual level, according to Herbert (1997), a belief in the power of genes necessarily diminishes the potency of such personal qualities as will, capacity to choose, and sense of responsibility for those choices. The argument proposes that if one's actions are determined by one's individual's genes, he or she should not be considered accountable for . . . whatever! It allows the alcoholic, for example, to act as a helpless victim of biology rather than as a willful agent with independent behavioral control.
