Cultural universals: what all societies have in common

Cultural universals are the elements of culture, society, language, behavior, and mind. that, according to 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 critique of the way in which anthropology understood the culture and human nature, and he 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 of the tendency to divide the world between a dimension called "culture", and another opposed to another that we call "nature". In this opposition,

anthropology had tended to situate 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 determines us as human beings.

Brown is positioned more towards understanding culture as a continuum with nature, and seeks to reconcile the idea of variability of cultures and behaviors, with the constants of biological nature that also constitute us as Humans. For Brown, societies and cultures are the product of 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 universals as explanatory theoretical models about human beings. These models allow make 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 what 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 different areas at the same time. 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 gives in the cultural area are myths, legends, daily routines, the concepts of "luck", body 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, games, ethnocentrism.

Behaviorally, 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 peoples 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 implicational universal, 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 at the bottom of 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 societies apparently unrelated to each other, but They are not absolute universals because they appear to occur randomly.. For example, the different names by 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 which found in different forms in all cultures.

In this case, there are two large categories to analyze universals: emic and etic (derived from the English terms "phonemic" and "phonetic"), which serve to distinguish the elements that are expressly represented in people's cultural conceptions, and the elements that are present but not necessarily explicit.

For example, all people 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 in http://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.