ABSTRACT
In the twenty-first century, we are faced with a cultural crisis and a crisis of cultures. This chapter explores human behavior at the broadest, most general level—that is, as a species. It examines ideas from a number of disciplines, ideas that seem particularly pertinent to human services and social systems theory. Society is a holon, and within the society, "culture" refers to the way of life followed by that population. Cultures evolve from the interactions of persons with others, and a person's belief or behavior becomes part of a culture when it is externalized and objectified. The cultural form of family must never be confused with the biological norm of the family; the cultural forms vary tremendously between cultures and between subcultures within the same culture. The social organization of an evolving culture becomes more complex because of an increased volume of relationships among the various elements of the culture.
