Jeff Russell

Hmm, that's interesting. So, if I'm following, you're saying something like that "primitive" humans have some suite of cultural folkways and/or tool, but that these are just one of other "ecosystem" factors that have just as much bearing - for example, the migrations of prey animals, the turn of the seasons, and so forth. A "culturesystem organism," to use your words, or one of Spengler's "Great Cultures" would then be a group of humans treated as an organism for whom the set of folkways, understandings of how the world works, and approaches to getting things done come to dominate how the organism functions. The other ecological factors (herds, seasons, etc) would all be subordinated to the cultural much more completely.

Is that roughly where you're going?