The application of cultural materialism, a Darwinistic approach to social forces, reveals that human learning is ultimately governed by the required process of human energy procurement. This "ethno-logic" interpretation of the correlation between techno-environmental levels and human learning stands in contrast to the conventional but mistaken view that education is controlled by ideology and politics. Humans are energy extractors, just like any other organism. The more efficient expand at the expense of the less efficient. Successful techno-environmental abilities ultimately control social organization, which in turn perceptualize people's outlooks and dominating ideology. Education in turn responds to the societal need by teaching the youth of that society to perpetuate or improve the ability of that society to extract the necessary energies from the environment. Hence, environment dominates learning. Examination of foraging, mining, hunting, horticultural, agricultural, and herding cultures demonstrates the various manners in which culture reflects environmental pressures, and how the resultant societal needs are met by an educational system that responds to that particular environment's demands. The document includes a 117-item reference list. (PPB)