Human nature, to me, is as malleable a substance as there is. I do think there are certain historical reasons that have lead us to certain tendencies such as violence and greed, but I don’t think that it is human nature per se.
You come at this whole thing much like a creationisnt does to evolution.
You state that you dont think these things are due to human nature, and essentially ask people to convince/prove to you otherwise.
Yet if things arent the result of human nature, then they must be the result of something other-than-natural, or supernatural.
First, prove that this super-natural thing youre talking about exists. Then prove that it is a major cause of human behavior.
Outside of a few very simple instincts ehibited from birth (such as crying and suckling), I think it’s hard to prove that humans simply must exhibit any sort of behavior. Is there any quality or behavior outside of procreation that you can offer up as an unavoidable consequence of being human?
The same behavior exhibited by all biological organisms that continue to exist; self preservation/interest.
…I am thinking in terms of traits that seem prevalent enough to establish a significant trend and generate a reaction in terms of societal structure.
Ok, but since you apparently dont want to use history, then how do you plan on establishing a trend? A trend is something that occurs over time, so to find trends, you look to history.
Here is something for you; everything: cultural beliefs, religons, societal structures - everything is the result of biological imperatives, drives, motivations. Cultural/social beliefs are the result of biology meeting environment, and yes they then create/modify new environments which those same biological drives then adapt to as well. Its a biofeedback system.
For some reason you see humans using stone tools and humans using computers as two different traits; but theyre not, theyre the same trait, which is the usage of tools. A computer is just a tool like any rock. Its the same trait adapting itself to the environment. If you want to see why different peoples came to different solutions for the same problems posed by the same biological impetuses (impetii?), ultimately look to the natural environment in which they live/lived.
Its like heat through a magnifying glass burning some paper; its not the glass doing the burning, even though if you take away the glass no burn occurs. And the glass itself is the result of heat being applied to something else. So you have heat being applied to sand, which makes glass thus causing a change in the environment and then heat through that new addition to the environment has another effect, that of intensifying the heat.
Now, if you want to claim that cultures, beliefs, societal structures and all that come about through some other means than good ole biological human nature acting through the lens of any given environment, first demonstrate the existance of some seperate thing/mechanism then demonstrate how it causes/influences human acts.