Cultural Universal - Wikipedia

Anthropological concept, element common to all human cultures "Human universals" redirects here. For the 1991 anthropology book, see Human Universals.

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (May 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs attention from an expert in anthropology. The specific problem is: add citations or discredit. WikiProject Anthropology may be able to help recruit an expert. (January 2022) This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (March 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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

[edit]

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

[edit] Main article: Linguistic universal

• 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

[edit]

• 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[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
• 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

[edit] Further information: Myth and ritual

• 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, funerals
• Feasting
• Body adornment
• Hairstyles
• Art

Technology

[edit]

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

Nicholas Christakis' innate social universals

[edit]

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]

• Love for romantic partners
• Love for offspring
• Friendship
• Social networks
• Cooperation
• In-group favoritism

Non-nativist explanations

[edit]

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]

See also

[edit]

• Animal culture
• Archetype
• Biocultural anthropology
• Culture
• Social learning
• Social norm

References

[edit]

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. ^ 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

Bibliography

[edit]

• 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 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 Microculture Official culture Political culture Civic Popular culture Low culture Media culture Recombinant culture Remix culture Trash culture Urban Primitive culture Resistance through culture Subculture Alternative culture Counterculture Fandom Far-right subcultures Underground culture Youth subculture list Super culture Supporter Culture Vernacular culture Culture by location
Aspects	Acculturation Cultural appreciation Cultural appropriation Cultural area Cultural artifact Cultural baggage Cultural bias Cultural capital Cross-cultural Cultural communication Cultural conflict Cultural cringe Cultural dissonance 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 High-trust and low-trust societies Interculturality Internet culture Manuscript culture Material culture Non-material culture Organizational culture Assessment culture Design culture Journalism culture Print culture Protoculture Relational mobility Safety culture Symbolic 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	Algorithmic culture Animal culture Archaeological culture Bennett scale Cannabis culture Circuit of culture Civilization Coffee culture Cringe 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 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 Free-culture movement Historical culture Intercultural communication Intercultural competence Languaculture Living things in culture Media culture Oppositional culture Participatory culture Permission culture Rape culture Tea culture Transformation of culture Urban culture Welfare culture Western culture Youth culture
Category

v t e Evolutionary psychology
History Evolutionary thought Theoretical foundations Adaptationism Cognitive revolution Cognitivism Gene selection theory Modern synthesis Criticism
Evolutionaryprocesses	Acquired characteristics Adaptations Altruism Cheating Hamiltonian spite Reciprocal Baldwin effect By-products Evolutionarily stable strategy Exaptation Fitness Inclusive Kin selection Inbreeding avoidance Kin recognition Parental investment Parent–offspring conflict Mismatch Natural selection Sexual selection Costly signaling Male/female intrasexual competition Mate choice Sexual dimorphism Social selection Species-typical behavior
Areas	Cognition /Emotion Affect Display Display rules Facial expression Behavioral modernity Cognitive module/modularity of mind Adaptive unconscious/Unconscious cognition Automatic and controlled processes Cognitive specialization Computational theory of mind Domain generality Domain specificity/learning 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 Numerical cognition Number sense Approximate number system Parallel individuation system 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 Social contagion Behavioral contagion Emotional contagion Epidemiology of representations Universals Development Attachment Bonding Biology Affectional/maternal/paternal bond Caregiver deprivation Childhood attachment Cinderella effect Cognitive development Education Neuronal recycling hypothesis Science of reading 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 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 Societal effects of cars Distracted driving Lead–crime hypothesis Mobile phones and driving safety Texting while driving Sex Activity Adult attachment Age disparity Arousal Concealed ovulation Coolidge effect Desire Fantasy Hormonal motivation Incest taboo Westermarck effect Jealousy Mate guarding Mating preferences Mating strategies Orientation Ovulatory shift hypothesis Pair bond Romantic love Physical/Sexual attraction Sexuality/male/female Sexy son hypothesis 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 Biolinguistics Biological psychiatry Cognitive ethology Cognitive psychology Cognitive science Comparative psychology Cross-cultural psychology Ethology Evolutionary biology Evolutionary medicine Functional psychology Neuropsychology Philosophy of mind Population genetics Primatology Sociobiology Research topics Animal/comparative cognition Animal communication Animal consciousness Animal culture Animal language Animal navigation Animal training Animal-made art Cognitive bias Emotion g factor in non-humans Great ape language Human–animal communication Number sense Primate cognition Theory of mind Tool use Cultural evolution Evolutionary epistemology Missing heritability problem 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
Evolutionary psychologists  Evolutionary psychology  Psychology portal  Evolutionary biology portal