Cultural universal

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.

YouTube Encyclopedic

1/5
Views:
1 001
1 408
765
3 700
1 219

Transcription

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]

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

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

v t e Culture
Outline
Sciences	Cultural anthropology Cultural astronomy Cultural ecology Cultural geography Cultural neuroscience Cultural studies Culturology Culture theory
Subfields	Bioculture Cross-cultural studies Cross-cultural communication Cross-cultural leadership Cross-cultural psychiatry Cross-cultural psychology Cultural analytics Cultural economics Cultural entomology Cultural history Cultural mapping Cultural mediation Cultural psychology Cultural values Culturomics Intercultural learning Intercultural relations Internet culture Philosophy of culture Popular culture studies Postcritique Semiotics of culture Sociology of culture Sound culture Theology of culture Transcultural nursing
Types	Constructed culture Dominant culture Folk culture High culture Individualistic culture Legal culture Low culture Microculture Official culture Political culture Civic Popular culture Urban Primitive culture Subculture Alternative culture list Super culture Vernacular culture Culture by location
Aspects	Acculturation Cultural appreciation Cultural appropriation Cultural area Cultural artifact Cultural baggage Cultural behavior Cultural bias Cultural capital Cross-cultural Cultural communication Cultural conflict Cultural cringe Cultural dissonance Cultural emphasis Cultural framework Cultural heritage Destroyed Cultural icon Cultural identity Cultural industry Cultural invention Cultural landscape Cultural learning Cultural leveling Cultural memory Cultural pluralism Cultural practice Cultural property Cultural reproduction Cultural system Cultural technology Cultural universal Cultureme Enculturation High- and low-context cultures Interculturality Manuscript culture Material culture Non-material culture Organizational culture Print culture Protoculture Relational mobility Safety culture Technoculture Trans-cultural diffusion Transculturation Visual culture
Politics	Colonial mentality Consumer capitalism Cross cultural sensitivity Cultural assimilation Cultural attaché Cultural backwardness Cultural Bolshevism Cultural conservatism Cultural contracts Cultural deprivation Cultural diplomacy Cultural environmentalism Cultural exception Cultural feminism Cultural genocide Cultural globalization Cultural hegemony Cultural imperialism Cultural intelligence Cultural liberalism Cultural nationalism Cultural pessimism Cultural policy Cultural racism Cultural radicalism Cultural retention Cultural Revolution Cultural rights Cultural safety Cultural silence Cultural subsidy Cultural Zionism Culture change Culture minister Culture of fear Culture war Deculturalization Dominator culture Interculturalism Monoculturalism Multiculturalism Biculturalism Multiracial democracy Pluriculturalism Polyculturalism Transculturism
Religions	Buddhism Christianity Catholicism Cultural Christians Protestantism Role of Christianity in civilization Eastern Orthodoxy Mormonism Cultural Hindus Islam Cultural Muslims Judaism Sikhism
Related	Animal culture Archaeological culture Bennett scale Cannabis culture Circuit of culture Civilization Coffee culture Cross-cultural Cultural center Cultural competence Cultural critic Cultural determinism Cultural diversity Cultural evolutionism Cultural homogenization Cultural institution Cultural jet lag Cultural lag Cultural literacy Cultural mosaic Cultural movement Cultural mulatto Cultural probe Cultural relativism Culture speculation Cultural tourism Pop-culture Cultural translation Cultural turn Cultural sensibility Culture and menstruation Culture and positive psychology Culture and social cognition Culture gap Culture hero Culture industry Culture shock Culturgen Children's culture Culturalism Cyberculture Death and culture Disability culture Deaf culture Drinking culture Drug culture Eastern culture Emotions and culture Intercultural communication Intercultural competence Languaculture Living things in culture Media culture Oppositional culture Participatory culture Permission culture Rape culture Remix culture Tea culture Transformation of culture Urban culture Welfare culture Western culture Youth culture
Category Commons WikiProject Changes

Evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary
processes

Areas

Cognition / Emotion	Affect Display Display rules Facial expression Behavioral modernity Cognitive module/modularity of mind Automatic and controlled processes Computational theory of mind Domain generality Domain specificity Dual process theory Cognitive tradeoff hypothesis Evolution of the brain Evolution of nervous systems Fight-or-flight response Arachnophobia Basophobia Ophidiophobia Folk biology/taxonomy Folk psychology/theory of mind Intelligence Flynn effect Wason selection task Motor control/skill Multitasking Sleep Visual perception Color vision Eye Naïve physics
Culture	Aesthetics Literary criticism Musicology Anthropology Biological Crime Language Origin Psychology Speech Morality Moral foundations Religion Origin Universals
Development	Attachment Bonding Affectional/maternal/paternal bond Caregiver deprivation Childhood attachment Cinderella effect Cognitive development Education Language acquisition Personality development Socialization
Human factors / Mental health	Cognitive ergonomics Computer-mediated communication Engineering psychology Human–computer interaction Media naturalness theory Neuroergonomics Depression Digital media use and mental health Effects of the car on societies Distracted driving Lead–crime hypothesis Mobile phones and driving safety Texting while driving Hypophobia Imprinted brain hypothesis Mind-blindness Psychological effects of Internet use Rank theory of depression Schizophrenia Screen time Smartphones and pedestrian safety Social aspects of television
Sex	Activity Adult attachment Age disparity Arousal Concealed ovulation Coolidge effect Desire Fantasy Hormonal motivation Jealousy Mate guarding Mating preferences Mating strategies Orientation Epigenetic theories of homosexuality Environmental factors Fraternal birth order Gender incongruence Neuroscience Prenatal hormones Ovulatory shift hypothesis Pair bond Physical/Sexual attraction Sexuality/male/female Sexy son hypothesis Westermarck effect
Sex differences	Aggression Autism Cognition Crime Division of labour Emotional intelligence Empathising–systemising theory Gender role Intelligence Memory Mental health Narcissism Neuroscience Schizophrenia Substance abuse Suicide Variability hypothesis

Related subjects

Academic disciplines	Behavioral/evolutionary economics Behavioral epigenetics/genetics Affective/behavioral/cognitive/evolutionary neuroscience Biocultural anthropology Biological psychiatry Cognitive psychology Cognitive science Ethology Evolutionary biology Evolutionary medicine Functional psychology Neuropsychology Philosophy of mind Population genetics Primatology Sociobiology
Research topics	Cultural evolution Evolutionary epistemology Great ape language Human–animal communication Missing heritability problem Primate cognition Unit of selection Coevolution Cultural group selection Dual inheritance theory Fisher's principle Group selection Hologenome theory Lamarckism Population Punctuated equilibrium Recent human evolution Species Species complex Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance Trivers–Willard hypothesis
Theoretical positions	Cultural selection theory Determinism/indeterminism Biological determinism Connectionism Cultural determinism Environmental determinism Nature versus nurture Psychological nativism Social constructionism Social determinism Standard social science model Functionalism Memetics Multilineal evolution Neo-Darwinism Neoevolutionism Sociocultural evolution Unilineal evolution

This page was last edited on 18 April 2024, at 00:25

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia