Cultural universal

A cultural universal (also called an anthropological universal or human universal), as discussed by Emile Durkheim, George Murdock, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Donald Brown and others, is an element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all 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".

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^[2] are:

Language and cognition

Language employed to manipulate others
Language employed to misinform or mislead
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, sex, 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

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
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
Cordage

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.^[5]

Since any cultures that have been studied by anthropologists have had contact with at least the anthropologists that studied it, and anthropological research ethics slows the studies down so that other groups unbound by such ethics, often at least locally represented by people of the same skin color as the supposedly isolated tribe but significantly culturally globalized, reach the tribe before the anthropologists do, no truly uncontacted culture has ever been scientifically studied.^[6] This allows outside influence to be an explanation for cultural universals as well.^[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]

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.
^ "We all want high social status".
^ Language: The cultural tool DL Everett - 2012 - Vintage
^ Fam Med. 2008 Jan;40(1) Continuing professional development in sensitive cultures. Huntington MK1.
^ 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

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.
Charles D. Laughlin and Eugene G. d'Aquili (1974) Biogenetic Structuralism. New York: Columbia University Press.
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1966) The Savage Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press [first published in French in 1962].
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.
Charles E. Osgood, William S May, and Murray S Miron (1975) Cross-Cultural Universals of Affective Meaning Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Steven Pinker (2002), The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, New York: Penguin Putnam.
Rik Pinxten (1976) "Epistemic Universals: A Contribution to Cognitive Anthropology," in Universalism Versus Relativism in Language and Thought, R. Pinxten (ed.). The Hague: Mouton.

[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.

[4] "We all want high social status".

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

[6] Fam Med. 2008 Jan;40(1) Continuing professional development in sensitive cultures. Huntington MK1.

[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

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