Is culture really all about terror management?

If I understand correctly, they say that culture is more or less a palliative against the fear of death.

The basic gist of the theory is that humans are motivated to quell the potential for terror inherent in the human awareness of vulnerability and mortality by investing in cultural belief systems (or worldviews)...

I think that is one reason for parts of culture...I don't think that's a sufficient explanation...

I think that is one reason for parts of culture.....especially involving beliefs about how the world came to be, meaning etc....but I don't think it's by any means more than a partial explanation

Lots of bits of culture just have to do with how and what we hunt, gather, grow stuff etc.

I don't think that's a sufficient explanation for aggression and competition and xenophobia, either.

Do people not already lead hedonistic lives? I sure do.

As for caring for one's offspring, that strikes me as instinctive behavior, a product of natural selection. There is the occasional exception, though. I was reading in the news just yesterday or so about adults smoking meth while their child?/children? slowly starved.

The thing about xenophobia is that it seems to be learned behavior. Very young children don't seem to have it. Or do they? OK, now that's something else I'm going to have to dig into. Off to read up on it...

But we still care enough about the future of the species to, say, worry about global warming, or study the universe even thought we know that FTL most likely won't be invented in our lifetime, if at all, and so on.
...
We truly have that instinct, and its quite powerful, but still, caring about your legacy gives you even more reasons to care about your children, and to have children in the first place.

Well...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/10770563/Babies-show-racial-bias-study-finds.html

I dunno how trustworthy that particular study is, but from an evolutionary standpoint innately distinguishing those who are similar to you from those who aren't makes perfect sense. In fact, if we didn't have this instinct, then where would cultures that discriminate come from in the first place? And why would they be so ubiquitous throughout the various human societies?

I'm not sure how prevalent drug use by mothers are, but I've seen some media reports on them. The impressions stayed with me, because of the effect the drugs had on the infant born with drugs.

manored wrote:

But we still care enough about the future of the species to, say, worry about global warming, or study the universe even thought we know that FTL most likely won't be invented in our lifetime, if at all, and so on.
...
We truly have that instinct, and its quite powerful, but still, caring about your legacy gives you even more reasons to care about your children, and to have children in the first place.

That's addressed by TMT, too. The desire to be immortalized, even if only metaphorically, by contributing to something that will be here after the individual is gone, whether family or species. Not saying I'm buying it, mind you, only that the literature I've read on it makes that suggestion.

Terror management theory assumes that humans have developed a suite of defense mechanisms to protect themselves from the existential anxiety they experience when they are cognizant of their mortality. Existential anxiety arises because individuals experience a profound motive, derived from evolutionary forces, to preserve their life. Therefore, an awareness of mortality could evoke existential anxiety, corresponding to a sense of futility, unless humans invoke a set of mechanisms that are intended to curb this awareness. Some of these mechanisms include a tendency to believe in an after life, to feel connected to a broader, enduring entity, or to distract attention from their mortality, reflecting a form of denial (Gailliot, Schmeichel, & Baumeister,2006).

Worldviews

Defense of worldviews

According to terror management theory, when individuals feel threatened, they often attempt to foster a state called symbolic immortality, attempting to connect themselves as a broader social entity--either some collective, pursuit, or meaning...

Indeed, the search for meaning might, arguably, underpin the core of the defense mechanisms, evoked to curb existential angst (see Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon, 1999). That is, when individuals become aware of their personal mortality, they want to believe they can contribute to some movement or purpose that transcends their body. They like to believe their life is invaluable to some endeavor that does not involve their mortal body. They need to feel their life is meaningful in some enduring sense.

So the authors of TMT think that the search for meaning is itself a symptom of the fear of non-being. Would you disagree? I'll see if I can find some more helpful quotes or sources that explain their position in more detail...

Evidence for terror management theory: I. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values.
Rosenblatt A1, Greenberg J, Solomon S, Pyszczynski T, Lyon D.

Abstract
On the basis of terror management theory, it was hypothesized that when mortality is made salient, Ss would respond especially positively toward those who uphold cultural values and especially negatively toward those who violate cultural values. In Experiment 1, judges recommended especially harsh bonds for a prostitute when mortality was made salient. Experiment 2 replicated this finding with student Ss and demonstrated that it occurs only among Ss with relatively negative attitudes toward prostitution. Experiment 3 demonstrated that mortality salience also leads to larger reward recommendations for a hero who upheld cultural values. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that the mortality salience effect does not result from heightened self-awareness or physiological arousal. Experiment 6 replicated the punishment effect with a different mortality salience manipulation. Implications for the role of fear of death in social behavior are discussed.