Such striving is the top priority, the crowning achievement, the measuring rod of such a culture, its attainment - its criterion of success or failure. On the other pole of the dichotomy we find cultures which look beyond humanity. Some cultures want to transcend human limitations, others to derive meaning, yet others to maintain social equilibrium. They evolve, they develop, they procreate. The Differential Phases are period of social dislocation and upheaval, of critical, even revolutionary thinking, of new technologies, new methods of achieving set social goals, identity crises, imitation and differentiation.
Anthropocentric cultures have differential phases which are longer than the inertial ones.
Anthropotranscendental ones tend to display a reverse pattern. Each such element is idiosyncratic and unique. Such cultures would accentuate attention to details, private enterprise, initiative, innovation, entrepreneurship, inventiveness, youth, status symbols, consumption, money, creativity, art, science and technology. These are the things that distinguish one individual from another. Other cultures engulf their constituents, assimilate them to the point of consumption.