When we talk about adaptations that embody a ‘fear of death’, we’re not talking about some conscious, culturally transmitted, conceptual understanding of death;
That is in fact what I was talking about, because the abstract conscious culturally transmitted fear of death is vastly more general and effective once learned. Humans do seem to have innate fears of some leading causes of early death, such as heights, and indirect fear of many sources of contamination through disgust; there are probably a few other examples.
But in general humans have lost many innate skills and responses (which typically come from brainstem CPGs) in favor of the more complex learned variants (cortical) - we even must learn to walk. Human babies are notoriously lacking in fear of all the various ways the world can kill them and require extensive supervision.
That is in fact what I was talking about, because the abstract conscious culturally transmitted fear of death is vastly more general and effective once learned. Humans do seem to have innate fears of some leading causes of early death, such as heights, and indirect fear of many sources of contamination through disgust; there are probably a few other examples.
But in general humans have lost many innate skills and responses (which typically come from brainstem CPGs) in favor of the more complex learned variants (cortical) - we even must learn to walk. Human babies are notoriously lacking in fear of all the various ways the world can kill them and require extensive supervision.