Culture as a stressor: a revised model of biocultural interaction

Contemporary urban societies display in high relief the action of social stratification on human biology. Recent studies of biological responses to urban environments and of socioeconomically disadvantaged people indicate that culture allocates risks disproportionately to some individuals and groups within society through its constituent values and related patterns of behavior. Although risk allocation is present in all societies, it is very clear in urban environments within stratified societies where high exposure to harmful materials is many times more likely for some segments of society. In urban environments, culture may be seen as adding stressors to the environment by concentrating naturally occurring materials to levels that are toxic to humans and through the creation of new toxic materials. In stratified societies the risk of exposure to these new stressors is focused on the socioeconomically disadvantaged. This exposure has consequences that increase the likelihood of more exposure and more socioeconomic disadvantage, thereby increasing social stratification. This suggests that models of biocultural interaction include a feedback relationship in which biological factors influence the sociocultural system in addition to the usual action of the sociocultural system on biological features and responses. This model strongly reinforces the view that stressors can originate from cultural arrangements.