Solar Cycles, Light, Sex Hormones and the Life Cycles of Civilization: Toward Integrated Chronobiology

Roy Barzilai

Abstract


The emerging discipline of complexity science, applied to the social sciences, seeks to study the rise of human civilization as a part of a natural, evolving biological system that exploits energy resources to fuel its growth into a complex social system. In order to understand the whole system, the reductionist approach, typical to Western science, must be supplanted. The atomistic study of various scientific fields as separate mechanical parts of the system must be broadened, creating a more holistic view of human culture as an integral part of larger universal process of evolution and creation. In this article I wish to integrate the various scientific fields, including physics, chronobiology (studying the effect of solar cycles on biological growth), biology, evolutionary psychology, and the social sciences, to achieve a unified understanding of our cultural evolution.


Keywords


cultural evolution; social psychology; sex hormones

Full Text:

PDF

References


Bossini, L., Caterini, C., Koukouna, D., Casolaro, I., Roggi M., Di Volo, S.,…& Fagiolini, A . (2009). Light therapy as a treatment for sexual dysfunctions. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 78(2). doi: 10.1159/000203119

Bossini, L., Caterini, C., Koukouna, D., Casolaro, I., Roggi M., Di Volo, S.,… & Fagiolini, A. (2013). Light therapy as a treatment for sexual dysfunctions--beyond a pilot study. Psychiatria Polska 47(6), 1113-11122. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/344c/fe727638deed5eac9ccade5c7e5901633bb7.pdf

Brody, Jane E. (1981). From fertility to mood, sunlight found to affect human biology. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/23/science/from-fertility-to-mood-sunlight-found-to-affect-human-biology.html?pagewanted=all&mcubz=0

Cotterell, Maurice. (2017). How our 28-day spinning sun regulates fertility in females. Retrieved from https://www.mauricecotterell.com/downloads/fertility.pdf.

Deans, Emily. (2011). Sunlight, sugar, and serotonin: The evolution of serotonin, and why we crave carbs. Psychology Today online. Retrieved from

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201105/sunlight-sugar-and-serotonin

Faryadyan, P., Khosravi, A., Kashiri, M., & Valizadeh, R. (2014). Prenatal exposure to blue and green colors increases serum testosterone levels in male offspring rats. Biomedical & Pharmacy Journal, 7(1), 129-135. Retrieved from http://www.biomedpharmajournal.org/dnload//BPJV07I01P129-135.pdf

Gray, Peter B. (2011). The descent of a man’s testosterone. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(39), 16141–16142 doi:10.1073/pnas.1113323108

Hutchinson, Courtney. (2009, December 10). Today’s teens more anxious, depressed and paranoid than ever. ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/todays-teens-anxious-depressed-paranoid/story?id=9281013

Konstantin, K., Danilenko, V., & Samoilova, Elena A. (2007). Stimulatory effect of morning bright light on reproductive hormones and ovulation: Results of a controlled crossover trial. PLoS Clinical Trials, 2(2), e7, doi: 10.1371/journal.pctr.0020007

Lee, S. H., Paz-Filho, G., Mastronardi, C., Licinio, L., & Wong, M-L. (2016). Is increased antidepressant exposure a contributory factor to the obesity pandemic? Translational Psychiatry, 6(3), e759, doi: 10.1038/tp.2016.25

Pinker, Steven. (2018). Enlightenment now: The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress. New York, NY: Viking.

Price, David. (1995). Energy and human evolution. Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 16(4), 301-19.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2015). Results from the 2012 national survey on drug use and health: Mental Health Findings. NSDUH Series H-51, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 16-4984. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Szalavitz, Maia. (2011, October 20). What does a 400% increase in antidepressant use really mean? Time. Retrieved from http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/20/what-does-a-400-increase-in-antidepressant-prescribing-really-mean/

Tucci, V. and Moukaddam, N. (2017). We are the hollow men: The worldwide epidemic of mental illness, psychiatric and behavioral emergencies, and its impact on patients and providers. Journal of Emergencies, Trauma, and Shock, 10(1), 4–6, doi: 10.4103/0974-2700.199517

Woods, Robert. (2000). The demography of Victorian England and Wales. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/2001268297.pdf

Yoon, I. Y., Kripke, D. F., Elliott, J. A., & Youngstedt, S. D. (2003). Luteinizing hormone following light exposure in healthy young men. Neuroscience Letters, 341(1), 25-28. doi: 10.1016/S0304-3940(03)00122-8

Young, Simon N. (2007). How to increase serotonin in the human brain without drugs. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, 32(6). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2077351/

Xu, J. Q., Murphy, S. L., Kochanek, K. D., Arias, E. (2015). Mortality in the United States. NCHS data brief, no 267. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/43013#




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23756/sp.v7i2.483

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2019 Roy Barzilai

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Science & Philosophy - Journal of Epistemology, Science and Philosophy. ISSN 2282-7757; eISSN  2282-7765.