Login
Login

Cultural universal

{{Short description|Anthropological concept, element common to all human cultures}}

{{redirect|Human universals|the 1991 anthropology book|Human Universals{{!}}Human Universals}}

{{multiple issues|

{{POV check|talk=Various sections in talk section address the dubious claim of universality of the sole and only list within this article. More views should be gathered and, more importantly, a critical section about cultural universality claims should be written to reflect many fair and documented concerns about such claims (again, see talk page for examples). |date=July 2018}}

{{More footnotes|date=May 2014}}

{{expert| anthropology| reason=add citations or discredit |date=January 2022}}

{{Tone|date=March 2025}}

}}

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.Schacter, Daniel L, Daniel Wegner and Daniel Gilbert. 2007. Psychology. Worth Publishers. pp. 26–27 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:{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Donald |title=Human Universals |date=1991 |publisher=Template University Press |isbn=978-0070082090}}

=Language and cognition=

{{main|Linguistic universal}}

{{columns-list|

  • 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, misinform, or mislead

}}

=Society=

{{columns-list|

  • 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, statuses, and terms
  • Law: rights and obligations, rules of membership
  • Moral sentiments
  • Distinguishing right and wrong, good and bad
  • Promise/oath
  • Prestige inequalities
  • Statuses and roles{{cite journal|title=The Local-Ladder Effect: Social Status and Subjective Well-Being|journal = Psychological Science|volume = 23|issue = 7|pages = 764–71|doi = 10.1177/0956797611434537|pmid = 22653798|year = 2012|last1 = Anderson|first1 = C.|last2 = Kraus|first2 = M. W.|last3 = Galinsky|first3 = A. D.|last4 = Keltner|first4 = D.|s2cid = 8406753}}{{cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Cameron |last2=Hildreth |first2=John Angus D. |last3=Howland |first3=Laura |title=Is the desire for status a fundamental human motive? A review of the empirical literature. |journal=Psychological Bulletin |date=May 2015 |volume=141 |issue=3 |pages=574–601 |doi=10.1037/a0038781|pmid=25774679 |s2cid=17129083 }}
  • 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
  • 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=

{{further|Myth and ritual}}

{{columns-list|

}}

=Technology=

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:{{cite book |author=Nicholas Christakis |title=Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society |year=2019 |publisher=Little, Brown Spark}}

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.Language: The cultural tool DL Everett - 2012 - Vintage

Outside influence could be an explanation for some cultural universals.Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundations of Minority Rights, Alan Patten 2014 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.Cultures and Globalization: Cultural Expression, Creativity and Innovation, Helmut K Anheier, Yudhishthir Raj Isar 2010

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 relationsFarber, 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 and did not police women's sexuality,{{Cite journal |last1=Broude |first1=Gwen J. |last2=Greene |first2=Sarah J. |date=1976 |title=Cross-Cultural Codes on Twenty Sexual Attitudes and Practices |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3773308 |journal=Ethnology |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=409–429 |doi=10.2307/3773308 |jstor=3773308 |issn=0014-1828}} 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)".Brown, D. (1991). Human universals. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. 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,Pelto, P. J. (1960). Individualism in Skolt Lapp society. Altschuler's on the Cayapa,{{Cite journal |last=Goethals |first=George W. |date= 1972|title=Human Sexual Behavior: Variations in the Ethnographic Spectrum. Donald S. Marshall , Robert C. Suggs |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/225221 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |language=en |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=806–808 |doi=10.1086/225221 |issn=0002-9602}} or Dentan's on the Semai.Dentan, R. K. (2008). Overwhelming terror: Love, Fear, Peace, and Violence among Semai of Malaysia. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 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,{{cite web | url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/daf-yomi-123 | title=Daf Yomi: Sex, Marriage, and Jewish Women's Right to Fulfillment | date=14 April 2015 }} the Quran and tafsir,{{Cite web |title=A Woman's Right to Orgasm: Feminism in the Bedroom & Sexual Liberation Through Islam Not Despite It |url=https://www.amaliah.com/post/51477/womans-right-orgasm-feminism-bedroom-muslim-womans-right-to-sex-marriage-what-does-islam-say-about-sex |access-date=2024-09-12 |website=Amaliah}} 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,Briggs, L. C. (1967). Tribes of the Sahara. Ardent Media. TarahumaraKennedy, J. G., & Porter, F. W. (1990). The Tarahumara. Chelsea House Publications. Garo and Hopi{{Cite book |last=Göttner-Abendroth |first=Heide |url=https://ci.nii.ac.jp:443/ncid/BB10517513 |title=Matriarchal societies : studies on indigenous cultures across the globe |date=2012 |publisher=Peter Lang |language=ja}}). 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,Rački, F., Jagić, V., & Torbar, J. (1866). Književnik. Russia and especially the Volga region{{Cite web |title=Mordvins {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/commonwealth-independent-states-and-baltic-nations/cis-and-baltic-political-geography/mordvins |access-date=2024-09-12 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}} 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.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. He also makes copious reference to the universality of the Oedipus complex, which is now rejected as pseudoscience even within western society.

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

  • {{cite book |author1-first=Erika |author1-last=Bourguignon |author2-first=Lenora |author2-last=Greenbaum Ucko |year=1973 |title= Diversity and Homogeneity in World Societies |location=New Haven, Connecticut |publisher=HRAF Press |isbn = 978-0875363301}}
  • {{Cite book |first = Donald |last = Brown |author-link = Donald Brown (anthropologist) |title =Human Universals |publisher = Temple University Press |date = 1991 |location = Philadelphia |url = http://condor.depaul.edu/~mfiddler/hyphen/humunivers.htm |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). [https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110805826.117/html "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) [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150506094925.htm "We all want high social status"]. ScienceDaily. Berkeley: University of California. Retrieved 24 March 2021

{{Culture}}

{{Evolutionary psychology}}

Category:Culture

Category:Evolutionary psychology

Category:Society-related lists