the world around it ? Disappointingly , the two topics are dealt with in less than ten pages , before the narrative moves on to the larger historical and geographical scene , where Wexler ’ s main interest appears to lie .
Surely , though , he is mistaken to think that the main cultural clashes that matter result from the interaction of societies that have developed separately . In fact , it is far from clear that even the societies Wexler mentions have developed as separately from each other as he thinks : interaction , rather than isolation , appears to have been the norm throughout history , admittedly not on the massive scale that jet travel and Facebook now allow . Moreover , the cross-cultural interactions that are experienced by an individual brain are not the tectonic interactions of civilizations but the daily encounter with difference ; the landscape-changing experiences of bereavement and migration , yes ; but also the student who finds she has a foreign teacher , encounters a classmate from Taiwan , or takes a trip to Thailand .
For this student , Wexler ’ s thesis would still apply : her inner neurobiological structures formed by one kind of environment will resist and try to re-shape the “ other ” environment in which she finds herself . The struggle between internal and external worldview will be fierce and fairly unpleasant . But here there are important questions that Wexler does not address directly : On which side of the watershed between being moulded by the environment and attempting to mould it does our hypothetical university student stand ? Why , if the adult brain ’ s instincts are essentially conservative and rejecting of difference , have whole industries been built on the human desire to travel to and experience exotic environments ?
On the first question , the information Wexler provides is a little vague . The watershed is referred to as “ adolescence ” but at one point he mentions 25 as the age by which all brain structures are fully mature . He would probably say it is a gradual change rather than a single moment in a child ’ s development . This raises the possibility that , through Study Abroad programmes and the internationalisation of education , young , plastic brains can be moulded to see cultural variety as the norm to which they later try to make the outside world conform .
The second question , the human instinct to explore , to “ seek out new life and new civilizations ,” is not addressed at all in this book , though surely it provides the natural counterweight to the processes Wexler is exploring . It is why , despite a tendency to cling to the comforts of home , students do take part in Study Abroad programmes and retired people take cruises to exotic locales . It is why we travel .
There is a danger here , as with all book reviews , that I am reviewing the book I would have liked Wexler to have written instead of the one he did write . My point , though , is that his book is interesting and useful for the thinking it stimulates , not just for the thesis it promotes . There is clearly a great deal of merit , and food for thought , in his thesis ,
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