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A cultural universal (also called an anthropological universal or human universal) is an element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all known human cultures worldwide. Taken together, the whole body of cultural universals is known as the human condition. Evolutionary psychologists hold that behaviors or traits that occur universally in all cultures are good candidates for evolutionary adaptations.^[1] Some anthropological and sociological theorists that take a cultural relativist perspective may deny the existence of cultural universals: the extent to which these universals are "cultural" in the narrow sense, or in fact biologically inherited behavior is an issue of "nature versus nurture". Prominent scholars on the topic include Emile Durkheim, George Murdock, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Donald Brown.

Donald Brown's list in Human Universals

In his book Human Universals (1991), Donald Brown defines human universals as comprising "those features of culture, society, language, behavior, and psyche for which there are no known exception", providing a list of hundreds of items he suggests as universal. Among the cultural universals listed by Donald Brown are:^[2]

Language and cognition

Language is translatable
Abstraction in speech and thought
Antonyms, synonyms
Logical notions of "and", "not", "opposite", "equivalent", "part/whole", "general/particular"
Binary cognitive distinctions
Color terms: black, white
Classification of: age, behavioral propensities, body parts, colors, fauna, flora, inner states, kin, gender, space, tools, weather conditions
Continua (ordering as cognitive pattern)
Discrepancies between speech, thought, and action
Figurative speech, metaphors
Symbolism, symbolic speech
Synesthetic metaphors
Tabooed utterances
Special speech for special occasions
Prestige from proficient use of language (e.g. poetry)
Planning
Units of time
Language employed to manipulate others
Language employed to misinform or mislead

Society

Personal names
Family or household
Kin groups
Peer groups not based on family
Actions under self-control distinguished from those not under control
Affection expressed and felt
Age grades
Age statuses
Age terms
Law: rights and obligations, rules of membership
Moral sentiments
Distinguishing right and wrong, good and bad
Promise/oath
Prestige inequalities
Statuses and roles^[3]^[4]
Leaders
Inclination towards patriarchy (dominance of men in society)
De facto oligarchy
Property
Coalitions
Collective identities
Conflict
Cooperative labor
Gender roles
Males on average travel greater distances over lifetime
Marriage
Husband older than wife on average
Copulation normally conducted in privacy
Incest prevention or avoidance, incest between mother and son unthinkable or tabooed
Collective decision making
Etiquette
Inheritance rules
Generosity admired, gift giving
Mood- or consciousness-altering techniques and/or substances
Redress of wrongs, sanctions
Sexual jealousy
Sexual violence
Shame
Territoriality
Triangular awareness (assessing relationships among the self and two other people)
Some forms of proscribed violence
Visiting
Trade

Beliefs

Magical thinking
Use of magic to increase life and win love
Beliefs about death
Beliefs about disease
Beliefs about fortune and misfortune
Divination
Attempts to control weather
Dream interpretation
Beliefs and narratives
Proverbs, sayings
Poetry/rhetorics
Healing practices, medicine
Childbirth customs
Rites of passage
Music, rhythm, dance, and to some degree associations between music and emotion
Play
Toys, playthings
Death rituals, mourning
Feasting
Body adornment
Hairstyles
Art

Technology

Shelter
Control of fire
Tools, tool making
Weapons, spear
Containers
Cooking
Lever
Rope

Nicholas Christakis' innate social universals

Based on experiments and studies of accidental and utopian societies, sociologist and evolutionary biologist Nicholas Christakis proposes that humans have evolved to genetically favor societies that have eight universal attributes, including:^[5]

Non-nativist explanations

The observation of the same or similar behavior in different cultures does not prove that they are the results of a common underlying psychological mechanism. One possibility is that they may have been invented independently due to a common practical problem.^[6]

Outside influence could be an explanation for some cultural universals.^[7] This does not preclude multiple independent inventions of civilization and is therefore not the same thing as hyperdiffusionism; it merely means that cultural universals are not proof of innateness.^[8]

Criticism of Brown's universals

Donald Brown's perspective echoes a common belief held by many anthropologists of his time and earlier (increasingly those who have transitioned into the fields of evolutionary psychology, evolutionary anthropology, sociobiology and human behavioral ecology) who were critical of the cultural relativism of the Boas-Sapir school which has dominated much of western cultural anthropology for the last century. He attempted to find evidence for the universality of western concepts such as patriarchy, male domination, and control over female sexuality (such as the sexual double standard), often deliberately neglecting to mention the copious ethnographic evidence against these being universal traits. By the time of the publication of his 1991 book "Human Universals", it was common knowledge among anthropologists that many societies had egalitarian gender relations^[9] and did not police women's sexuality,^[10] but Brown chose to ignore this data and instead cobble together a narrative which seems to fit with his sociobiological presuppositions, selectively citing authors who agreed with him and ignoring those (such as Gwen J. Broude) who did not.

In fact, one major problem with Brown's work is that it is classic "armchair anthropology" which is based almost entirely on speculative work and catalogues the research of others, mostly those whom Brown himself had already decided were correct a priori. For instance, when discussing the supposed "universality" of male sexuality as more potent and aggressive than female's, he quotes "Starting from assumptions generated by an evolutionary perspective, Symons (1979) and Daly and Wilson (1983 [1978]) explain and document a complex of universal or near-universal differences between the sexes. Among them are the following: Sex is seen as a service given by females to males (females being the limiting resource); male sexual jealousy is more violent (confidence of paternity being a problem without a female counterpart); men are more quickly aroused, and more by visual stimuli (females being more choosy, and the signs of reproductive potential being more visibly discernible in the female); and the average husband is older than his wife (because a male’s reproductive potential—linked as it is to his ability to invest in child care—typically peaks later than a female’s)".^[11] Brown's major source for this is Donald Symons, himself an armchair anthropologist who did not perform any actual fieldwork but rather selectively interpreted certain ethnographies while ignoring those which disputed his assumptions (i.e. cherry picking). One does not need to look very far into the ethnographic record, for instance, to find very copious refutation of the claims that "sex is seen as a service given by females to males"; some of the most eminent ethnographies of the last century argue the exact opposite, such as Pelto's on the Sami,^[12] Altschuler's on the Cayapa,^[13] or Dentan's on the Semai.^[14] Similarly, many ancient and medieval texts argue the opposite: sex is seen as a service which men provide to women. This perspective is found in the Talmud,^[15] the Quran and tafsir,^[16] and some Hindu literature, all of which stands as a testimony to the impossibility of Symons' evidence-free assertion. The similar "universal" claim of women being the "choosers" while men compete is easily debunked by the large number of societies where women court men, not the other way around (examples include the Sami and Cayapa mentioned above as well as the Tuareg,^[17] Tarahumara^[18] Garo and Hopi^[19]). Even the claim of consistently higher male age at marriage struggles to conform itself to the widely known pattern among social historians of higher female age at marriage in some parts of Bulgaria,^[20] Russia and especially the Volga region^[21] during the nineteenth century.

Brown attempted to respond to criticism by citing highly questionable authorities and ideas now considered discredited or pseudoscientific. For instance, in order to "disprove" Margaret Mead's work on Samoa, he gave an uncompromisingly positive appraisal of Derek Freeman's so-called "refutation" of Mead; Freeman's work is now mostly regarded by anthropologists as being itself problematic and unreliable, more so than Mead's original research.^[22]^[23] He also makes copious reference to the universality of the Oedipus complex, which is now rejected as pseudoscience even within western society.

References

^ Schacter, Daniel L, Daniel Wegner and Daniel Gilbert. 2007. Psychology. Worth Publishers. pp. 26–27
^ Brown, Donald (1991). Human Universals. Template University Press. ISBN 978-0070082090.
^ Anderson, C.; Kraus, M. W.; Galinsky, A. D.; Keltner, D. (2012). "The Local-Ladder Effect: Social Status and Subjective Well-Being". Psychological Science. 23 (7): 764–71. doi:10.1177/0956797611434537. PMID 22653798. S2CID 8406753.
^ Anderson, Cameron; Hildreth, John Angus D.; Howland, Laura (May 2015). "Is the desire for status a fundamental human motive? A review of the empirical literature". Psychological Bulletin. 141 (3): 574–601. doi:10.1037/a0038781. PMID 25774679. S2CID 17129083.
^ Nicholas Christakis (2019). Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. Little, Brown Spark.
^ Language: The cultural tool DL Everett - 2012 - Vintage
^ Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundations of Minority Rights, Alan Patten 2014
^ Cultures and Globalization: Cultural Expression, Creativity and Innovation, Helmut K Anheier, Yudhishthir Raj Isar 2010
^ Farber, C. (1982). Female Power and Male Dominance: On the Origins of Sexual Inequality. Peggy Reeves Sanday. Atlantis, 7(2), 154–157. https://journals.msvu.ca/index.php/atlantis/article/download/4611/3849
^ Broude, Gwen J.; Greene, Sarah J. (1976). "Cross-Cultural Codes on Twenty Sexual Attitudes and Practices". Ethnology. 15 (4): 409–429. doi:10.2307/3773308. ISSN 0014-1828. JSTOR 3773308.
^ Brown, D. (1991). Human universals. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.
^ Pelto, P. J. (1960). Individualism in Skolt Lapp society.
^ Goethals, George W. (1972). "Human Sexual Behavior: Variations in the Ethnographic Spectrum. Donald S. Marshall , Robert C. Suggs". American Journal of Sociology. 77 (4): 806–808. doi:10.1086/225221. ISSN 0002-9602.
^ Dentan, R. K. (2008). Overwhelming terror: Love, Fear, Peace, and Violence among Semai of Malaysia. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
^ https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/daf-yomi-123 ^{[bare URL]}
^ "A Woman's Right to Orgasm: Feminism in the Bedroom & Sexual Liberation Through Islam Not Despite It". Amaliah. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
^ Briggs, L. C. (1967). Tribes of the Sahara. Ardent Media.
^ Kennedy, J. G., & Porter, F. W. (1990). The Tarahumara. Chelsea House Publications.
^ Göttner-Abendroth, Heide (2012). Matriarchal societies : studies on indigenous cultures across the globe (in Japanese). Peter Lang.
^ Rački, F., Jagić, V., & Torbar, J. (1866). Književnik.
^ "Mordvins | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
^ Orans, M. (1996). Not even wrong: Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman, and the Samoans. Chandler & Sharp Publishers, Incorporated.
^ Shankman, P. (2009). The trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy. Univ of Wisconsin Press.

Bibliography

Bourguignon, Erika; Greenbaum Ucko, Lenora (1973). Diversity and Homogeneity in World Societies. New Haven, Connecticut: HRAF Press. ISBN 978-0875363301.
Brown, Donald (1991). Human Universals. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-0070082090.
Joseph H. Greenberg, et al. (1978) Universals of Human Language, 4 vols. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804709653
Charles D. Laughlin and Eugene G. d'Aquili (1974) Biogenetic Structuralism. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231038171
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1966) The Savage Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd. ISBN 0226474844. [First published in French in 1962 as La Pensee Sauvage. ISBN 2259002110.]
George P. Murdock (1945), "The Common Denominator of Culture", in The Science of Man in the World Crisis, Ralph Linton (ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 4871872386
Charles E. Osgood, William S May, and Murray S Miron (1975) Cross-Cultural Universals of Affective Meaning Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252004261
Steven Pinker (2002), The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 9780142003343
Rik Pinxten (1976). "Epistemic universals: A contribution to cognitive anthropology" (PART II: Chapter 7). In Pinxten, Rik (ed.). Universalism Versus Relativism in Language and Thought. The Hague: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110805826
Brief news report of Psychological Bulletin article, Anderson, Hildreth, Howland (2015): Berkeley Haas School of Business. (May 6, 2015) "We all want high social status". ScienceDaily. Berkeley: University of California. Retrieved 24 March 2021

[Psychology-1] Schacter, Daniel L, Daniel Wegner and Daniel Gilbert. 2007. Psychology. Worth Publishers. pp. 26–27

[2] Brown, Donald (1991). Human Universals. Template University Press. ISBN 978-0070082090.

[3] Anderson, C.; Kraus, M. W.; Galinsky, A. D.; Keltner, D. (2012). "The Local-Ladder Effect: Social Status and Subjective Well-Being". Psychological Science. 23 (7): 764–71. doi:10.1177/0956797611434537. PMID 22653798. S2CID 8406753.

[Status_desire_2015-4] Anderson, Cameron; Hildreth, John Angus D.; Howland, Laura (May 2015). "Is the desire for status a fundamental human motive? A review of the empirical literature". Psychological Bulletin. 141 (3): 574–601. doi:10.1037/a0038781. PMID 25774679. S2CID 17129083.

[5] Nicholas Christakis (2019). Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. Little, Brown Spark.

[6] Language: The cultural tool DL Everett - 2012 - Vintage

[7] Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundations of Minority Rights, Alan Patten 2014

[8] Cultures and Globalization: Cultural Expression, Creativity and Innovation, Helmut K Anheier, Yudhishthir Raj Isar 2010

[9] Farber, C. (1982). Female Power and Male Dominance: On the Origins of Sexual Inequality. Peggy Reeves Sanday. Atlantis, 7(2), 154–157. https://journals.msvu.ca/index.php/atlantis/article/download/4611/3849

[10] Broude, Gwen J.; Greene, Sarah J. (1976). "Cross-Cultural Codes on Twenty Sexual Attitudes and Practices". Ethnology. 15 (4): 409–429. doi:10.2307/3773308. ISSN 0014-1828. JSTOR 3773308.

[11] Brown, D. (1991). Human universals. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.

[12] Pelto, P. J. (1960). Individualism in Skolt Lapp society.

[13] Goethals, George W. (1972). "Human Sexual Behavior: Variations in the Ethnographic Spectrum. Donald S. Marshall , Robert C. Suggs". American Journal of Sociology. 77 (4): 806–808. doi:10.1086/225221. ISSN 0002-9602.

[14] Dentan, R. K. (2008). Overwhelming terror: Love, Fear, Peace, and Violence among Semai of Malaysia. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

[15] ttps://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/daf-yomi-123 ^{[bare URL]}

[16] "A Woman's Right to Orgasm: Feminism in the Bedroom & Sexual Liberation Through Islam Not Despite It". Amaliah. Retrieved 2024-09-12.

[17] Briggs, L. C. (1967). Tribes of the Sahara. Ardent Media.

[18] Kennedy, J. G., & Porter, F. W. (1990). The Tarahumara. Chelsea House Publications.

[19] Göttner-Abendroth, Heide (2012). Matriarchal societies : studies on indigenous cultures across the globe (in Japanese). Peter Lang.

[20] Rački, F., Jagić, V., & Torbar, J. (1866). Književnik.

[21] "Mordvins | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2024-09-12.

[22] Orans, M. (1996). Not even wrong: Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman, and the Samoans. Chandler & Sharp Publishers, Incorporated.

[23] Shankman, P. (2009). The trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy. Univ of Wisconsin Press.

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PROFILPELAJAR.COM

Cultural universal

Donald Brown's list in Human Universals

Language and cognition

Society

Beliefs

Technology

Nicholas Christakis' innate social universals

Non-nativist explanations

Criticism of Brown's universals

See also

References

Bibliography

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