Cultural universals: what all societies have in common.

These are characteristics that do not seem to vary according to the cultural context in which one grows up.

Cultural universals are the elements of culture, society, language, behavior and mind that, according to anthropological studies so far, we share in practically all societies. that, according to anthropological studies to date, are shared by virtually 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 emerged as an important criticism of the way in which anthropology understood culture and human nature, and he developed an explanatory model that would recover the continuity between the two.

Here we explain how the theory of cultural universals arises and what are the six types proposed by Brown.

Criticism of cultural relativism

Brown proposed the concept of cultural universals in order to analyze the relationship between human nature and human culture. to analyze the relationships between human nature and human culture and how they had been addressed by traditional anthropology. and how they had been approached by traditional anthropology.

Among other things, he remained skeptical of the tendency to divide the world between a dimension called "culture", and another dimension opposed to the one we call "nature"- In this opposition, anthropology had tended to divide the world into two dimensions, anthropology had tended to situate its analyses on the side of culture, strongly associated with variability, variability and variability.In this opposition, anthropology had tended to situate its analyses on the side of culture, strongly associated with variability, indeterminacy, arbitrariness (which are the opposite elements to those of nature), and which are what determine us as human beings.

Brown moves 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 interactions between individuals and individuals and their environment.

The types of universals

In his theory, Brown develops different theoretical and methodological proposals to integrate universals as theoretical explanatory models about human beings. Such models make it possible to 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 universals.

1. Absolute universals

These universals are those 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" which expresses at the same time a form of social and cultural organization, and also a behavior.

Some examples given by the same author in the cultural area are myths, legends, daily routines, concepts of "luck", concepts of "luck", "luck", "luck", "luck", "luck", and "luck".In the area of language, some of the universals are the same as in the area of language.

In the area of language, some absolute universals are grammar, phonemes, metonymy, antonyms. In the social area, division of labor, social groups, play, ethnocentrism.

In the behavioral area, aggression, facial gestures, ruminations; 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 are different evidences that very few peoples used it, however, they did not know how to make it. Another example is the prohibition of incestwhich is a rule present in different cultures, with a few 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, a particular condition must be met for the element to be considered universal.

What lies at the heart of conditional universals is a causal mechanism that becomes a norm. a causal mechanism that becomes a rule. 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 consistently in apparently unrelated societies, but they are not absolute universals are not absolute universals because they seem to occur randomly.. For example, the different names for "pupil" in different cultures, since they all refer to a small person.

5. Group universals

Group universals are those elements or situations in which a limited set of options accounts for the possibilities of variation across cultures. For example, the international phonetic alphabet, which represents a finite possibility of communicating by means of common signs and sounds, and which is found in different ways in all cultures.

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

For example, all people speak on the basis of grammatical rules that we have acquired. However, not all people have a clear or explicit representation of what "grammatical rules" are.

Bibliographical references:

• Becerra, K. Binder, T and Bidegain, I. (1991). Review of Brown, D. (1991). Human Universals. McGraw Hill. Retrieved June 12, 2018. Available at 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.