Cultural universals: what all societies have in common
Cultural universals are the elements of culture, society, language, behavior and mind that, according to the anthropological studies carried out so far, we share practically all human societies.
The American anthropologist Donald E. Brown is perhaps the most recognized author in the development of the theory of cultural universals. His proposal emerges as an important criticism of the way in which anthropology understood culture and human nature, and develops an explanatory model that will recover the continuity between both.
Below we explain how the theory of cultural universals arises and what are the six types proposed by Brown.
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Criticism of cultural relativism
Brown proposed the concept of cultural universals with the intention of analyze the relationships between human nature and human culture and how they had been approached from traditional anthropology.
Among other things, he remained skeptical about the tendency to divide the world between a dimension called "culture", and another opposed to another we call "nature" · In that opposition, anthropology had tended to place its analyzes on the side of culture , strongly associated with variability, indeterminacy, arbitrariness (which are the elements contrary to those of nature), and which are what determine us as human beings.
Brown is positioned more towards understanding culture as a continuum with nature, and seeks to reconcile the idea of the variability of cultures and behaviors, with the constants of biological nature that also constitute us as human beings. For Brown, societies and cultures are the product of the interactions between individuals and individuals and their environment.
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The types of universals
In his theory, Brown develops different theoretical and methodological proposals to integrate the universals as explanatory theoretical models about human beings. These models allow establish connections between biology, human nature and culture .
Among other things he proposes that there are 6 types of universals: absolute, apparent, conditional, statistical and group.
1. Absolute universals
These universals are the ones that anthropology has found in all people regardless of their specific culture. For Brown, many of the universals do not exist separately from the other universals, but are expressions of the different areas at the same time, for example the concept of "property" that expresses at the same time a form of social and cultural organization, and also a behavior.
Some examples that the same author puts in the cultural area are the myths, the legends, the daily routines , the concepts of "luck", the corporal adornments, the production of tools.
In the area of language, some absolute universals are grammar, phonemes, metonymy, antonyms. In the social area, the division of labor, social groups, the game, ethnocentrism.
In behavioral, aggression, facial gestures, rumors; and in the mental area emotions, dualistic thinking, fears, empathy, psychological defense mechanisms.
2. Apparent universals
These universals are those for which there have been only a few exceptions. For example, the practice of making fire is a partial universal, because there is different evidence that very few people used it, however, they did not know how to make it. Another example is the prohibition of incest , which is a rule present in different cultures, with some exceptions.
3. Conditional universals
The conditional universal is also called universal implication, and refers to a cause-effect relationship between the cultural element and its universality. In other words, it is necessary that a particular condition is met for the element to be considered universal.
What is in the background in the conditional universals is a causal mechanism that becomes a norm . A cultural example could be the preference for the use of one of the two hands (the right, in the West).
4. Statistical universals
Statistical universals are those that occur constantly in apparently unrelated societies, but they are not absolute universals because they seem to happen randomly . For example, the different names with which the "pupil" is called in different cultures, since they all refer to a small person.
5. Universal groups
Group universals are those elements or situations in which a limited set of options explains the possibilities of variation between cultures. For example, the international phonetic alphabet, which represents a finite possibility of communicating through common signs and sounds, and that it is found in different ways in all cultures .
In this case there are two main categories to analyze the universals: emic and etic (derived from the terms in English "phonemic" and "phonetic") that serve to distinguish the elements that are expressly represented in the cultural conceptions of the people, and the elements that are present but not explicitly.
For example, all the people we speak based on some grammatical rules that we have acquired . However, not all people have a clear or explicit representation of what "grammar rules" are.
Bibliographic references:
- Becerra, K. Binder, T and Bidegain, I. (1991). Review by Brown, D. (1991). Human Universals McGraw Hill. Retrieved June 12, 2018. Available at //www.teodorowigodski.cl/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Human-Universals.pdf.
- Brown, D. (2004). Human universals, human nature & human culture. Daedalus, 133 (4): 47-54.
