Rationality, Culture and Welfare Entitlements: A Note on Change and Adaptation zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba THO MA S STO NE* SUNY Potsdam ABSTRACT: The interplay of rationality and culture in shaping patterns of moral responsibility is considered here in the context of economic entitlements which persons can claim on the basis of others’ obligations to be responsive to their needs. Even when the moral obligations underlying such entitlements have the status of “sanctified” (Rappaport, 1971) cultural understandings, they may nonetheless be subject to change in ways which are consistent with materially rational, self-interested economic calcula- tion. The role of two common forms of intra-societal cultural diversity in bringing this about is considered. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA INTRODUCTION The roots of human moral responsibility-in the specific sense of obligations to be responsive to the needs of others-have been credibly sought in two directions. On the one hand, moral obligations have been viewed as a product of the funda- mentally self-interested rationality of human behavior (Alexander, 1987). On the other hand, they have been seen not as the product of rationality, but of the dic- tates of culture, rooted in the remarkable “docility” or susceptibility to social influence which natural selection has produced as a hallmark of the human species (Simon, 1990). Rationality and culture both stand as undeniably prominent aspects of human nature, and both should be expected to play a part in shaping patterns of human *Direct all correspondence to: Thomas Stone, Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Potsdam, NY 13676. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFED Journal of Socio-Economics, Volume 26, No. 3, pp. 261-270 Copyright 0 1997 by JAI Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 10534357