Cultural Universals and Human Nature

This article defines and discusses the relationship between cultural universals and human nature. Social scientists, in particular sociologists and anthropologists, believe that culture completely determines human behavior; that there is no such thing as instinct in humans. In other words, without a social context, a being cannot become "human" because there is more nurture than nature in the making of a human being. Within social groups, distinct cultures emerge and throughout the world, these groups are viewed based on their cultural diversity. However, there are important patterns that are found in all cultures, which are known as cultural, or human, universals. Several examples of these universals are explored here, such as kinship and family, language, gender differences and religion. newly-added bibliography

Keywords Culture; Cultural Diversity; Cultural Universals; Division of Labor; Education; Ethnocentrism; Family; Gender; Global Culture; Human Nature; Human Universals; Kinship; Language; Nature; Nurture; Religion

Cultural Universals & Human Nature

Overview

What are Cultural Universals (Human Universals)?

Culture is everything that we learn and do. We can define culture as the knowledge, language, values, customs (also known as non-material culture) and material objects, or material culture, such as computers, books, cars, houses, appliances, toys, or cell phones that remain a part of the society through generations. By its very nature, culture is central and essential to the survival of the individual and of the society to which that individual belongs. Culture then, can be thought of as a complete set of understandings - assumptions, values, procedures, ideas, etc. – associated with a particular group of people (Howe, 2004).

By the 19th century, anthropologists began to notice in their research of groups of people, that there were common social behaviors across diverse boundaries such as race, ethnicity, and religion, where people had little in common biologically, except their humanness. Despite the boundaries separating them, people shared customs, ways of life, ideas, even though they were different physically. The term "culture" was adopted to refer to the things that people passed on for the most part, through an intellectual process, rather than through a biological one (Howe, 2004). Cultural universals then, or human universals as they are sometimes known, are basic solutions to the problems of living that are found in one form or another in all cultures.

What is Human Nature?

Sometimes, it is difficult to separate behaviors into those that are innate, or natural and those that are learned within our culture because we begin learning from the very moment we are born. Consider the human infant in western society. As soon as the medical professionals pronounce, "it's a girl," or "it's a boy," people begin treating the infant differently. They will insist that a boy infant looks like a football player, for example, or that a girl infant is a beauty, both gender qualities that are important in Western culture. Yet human nature refers to biologically-based qualities which humans possess and which can be found in every culture. They do not occur because of the environment, or the culture in which one lives, but upon the biological determinants that make up the human species. Most of these universals may reflect, in part, innate human tendencies (i.e., human nature).

What is the Relationship Between Cultural Universals & Human Nature?

Each species has certain behaviors which collectively are called its "nature" (Welch, 2008). For example, domesticated cats and dogs have very different natures, cats being considered more independent from their human caretakers, while dogs are known as "man's best friend" because of their tendency toward obedience and gregariousness. Humans develop from infancy in nearly identical ways, so much so that many books have been written about "what to expect from your child from birth to eighteen years of age." Within these volumes are the explanations of development characteristics of children at various stages. A parent can easily determine if her child is within the normal range by comparing the child's behavior, height, weight and cognition against these published and accepted norms. Of course, the child's environment can have much to do with how well he or she develops. Consider feral children, or those case studies of children brought up in the wild, or in severe isolation. These children, without socialization, do not develop according to accepted norms.

Sociological Perspectives on Nature vs. Nurture

What determines who we are: our social environment, or our genes, or heredity? Does a person become an alcoholic because he or she learns alcoholic behavior in the family system, or is the disease of alcoholism inherited biologically? Which perspective--the social or the biological--is the more important, or perhaps, the more potent?

While sociologists agree that most behavior is learned starting at birth and that there are few, if any, instincts in the human being, they do not reject the argument that biology plays an important role in creating a person (Long, 2007). Yet studies of twins who have been separated all their lives show that behaviors such as criminal behavior, are learned and not inherited. There are studies of children raised in complete isolation such as the famous case study in 1970 of a California girl named 'Genie," abused by her parents from the age of two. When she was rescued from nearly complete isolation at the age of 13, Genie weighed only fifty nine pounds and had the mental development of a one year old, thus perhaps indicating that social environment has more to do with development of human nature than does biology (Macionis, 2007).

Applications

The Structural-Functional Perspective

The structural-functionalist perspective in sociology uses culture to explain how people meet every day needs and thus support society's functional operation. Anthropologist George Murdock developed a list in 1945 of some seventy cultural universals that he had observed in his ethnographic studies and which he believed existed among all cultures, albeit in various forms. These cultural universals form common patterns of behavior among all cultures in order to deal with the smooth functioning of the group. Such common universals include family, the control of sexuality and caring for children, funeral rites and jokes (Macionis, 2007). Murdock's more definitive list includes the following (as cited in Bagwell, 2008):

• Age Grading ………. Hygiene

• Athletics ………. Incest Taboos

• Bodily Adornment ……….. Inheritance Rules

• Calendar ………. Joking

• Cleanliness Training ………. Kin Groups

• Community Organization ………. Kin Terminology

• Cooking ………. Language

• Cooperative Labor ………. Social Controls

• Cosmology ………. Luck

• Courtship ………. Magic

• Dancing ………. Marriage

• Decorative Art ………. Mealtimes

• Divination ………. Medicine

• Division of Labor ………. Modesty

• Dream Interpretation ………. Mourning

• Education ………. Music

• Eschatology ………. Mythology

• Ethics ………. Obstetrics

• Ethnobotany ……….. Numerals

• Etiquette ………. Penal Sanctions

• Healing ………. Personal Names

• Family ………. Population Policy

• Feasting ……….. Postnatal Care

• Fire Making ……….. Pregnancy Customs

• Folklore ………. Property Rights

• Food Taboos ………. Propitiation of Supernatural Beings

• Funeral Rites ………. Puberty Customs

• Games ………. Religious Ritual

• Gestures ………… Residence Rules

• Gift Giving ……….. Sexual Restrictions

• Political Organization ………. Soul Concept(s)

• Greetings Status ………. Differentiation

• Hair Styles ………. Supernatural

• Hospitality ……….. Surgery

• Housing ………. Tool Making

• Trade ………. Weaning

• Visiting ………. Weather Control

Examples of Cultural Universals

Living in Groups

Are people Gregarious by Nature, or Necessity? This question refers back to the perpetual argument regarding the importance of nature or nurture in the development of a human being. Are humans "naturally" gregarious, desiring to live in groups, or is the support and assistance of the group necessary for the person to develop into a fully human being?

The Quest to Belong

Forming into groups for humans seems to be as natural and also as social an activity as it is for any other animal from apes to ants, which can recognize fellow ants by chemical sensitivity as well as by a socialization process that occurs in the nest. Living in groups was a necessity based on the physical environment in which people lived and the dependence of members of the group in caring for pregnant women and infants for long periods of time (Allott, 1998).

Groupism, or the desire or readiness to merge into groups, then, is a primary human behavior. Nearly anything can determine membership in a group: geographical closeness, language, eye and hair color, shared experiences, or as in modern society, a favorite sports team. When people feel similar to one another in some way, they tend to flock, or distinguish themselves from one another in a variety of ways, thus demonstrating their alliance with a particular group (Allott, 1998).

Isolation as Punishment

Aristotle argued that humans are naturally gregarious, that they are by nature, a "zoon politikon," and to be without a "polis," or dwelling place, a person is either doomed, or is above other humans as a god would be ("Aristotle Doctrine," n.d.). Therefore, one of the worst punishments for a human being would be the isolation, or ostracization from the group to which they belong, or from any human contact.

Reciprocity

From Cicero's time, people were expected to return kindnesses. To do otherwise was cause for mistrust of the forgetful person. Within sociological theory, the concept of reciprocity is couched in the functionalist perspective, as an aspect of society which contributes to its smooth operation and to satisfy the needs of group members (Gouldner, 1960).

However, not all reciprocity is a one-for-one, give and take situation. The action of giving can be one-sided, such as a person making a donation for what is deemed a worthy cause, without expecting pay back from that particular cause (Gouldner, 1960). A person may reasonably expect that in some point in his or her lifetime, someone will do a good turn or deed to reciprocate indirectly for the earlier generosity. Many philosophical and spiritual teachings encourage this type of giving or generosity, even to the extreme of believing that a reward will be forthcoming in the afterlife, if not before. These belief systems serve to stabilize society.

Competition over Resources

Evidence of conflict, especially armed competition between groups, has been found as early as the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age (,000-10,000 B.C.). Living conditions for these early people were difficult, to say the least. Nature was wild and they lived directly in it, only sheltered by rock, cave or wood structures. Paleolithic people tended to live in large groups and to cooperate in order to gather enough food to share with other group members.

But clashes inevitably occurred which put one group victorious over another. Whether this is an example of human survival of the fittest, or sheer luck is still open for debate among scholars. What interests us here is that the group acted and continues to act as an instrument of survival and as a protection from the advances of other groups (Gouldner, 1960).

Kinship

While evolutionary biologists define kinship as a method of natural selection, or kinship selection, social scientists view kinship as central to social organization in most societies. In other words, it is considered a universal. A study of language and terms used among humans to indicate kinship relationship gives information about what notions of kinship are indeed universal. An example of this is the term "uncle," which can have some 52 possible definitions. To an evolutionary biologist, an uncle, the brother of a mother, or a father, has the same biological status within a lineage. Yet among families, a mother's uncle and a father's uncle may have different statuses within the kinship group and may hold a higher or lower level of responsibility and privilege (Jones, 2004).

Nepotism

Nepotism, the favoring of a family member over others, is a universal practice long before the days of Confucius some 2400 years ago. In his day, Confucius did espouse notions of filial piety, or the respect and honor of one's parents and elders, however, he believed in a system of meritocracy, the gaining of advances in a society not by nepotism, but by ability and devised a system of civil services laws and exams that are still in use today. However, nepotism still prevails in many areas of society including New York City's civil service system, which allows a "three-in-one" circumvention of civil service regulations by giving the hiring person the choice of by-passing the top-scoring person on a civil service test, in order to select another person in the top three scoring positions (Roberts, 2007).

Family

Murdock contended that not only is the family universal, but the nuclear family is also universal (Murdock, 1949). He goes on to identify four duties of the family: to regulate sexual behavior and to regulate reproduction, to care for members of the family in a material way, and to teach, or socialize family members. Other researchers have argued that the family may be universal, but not in the same form everywhere. Most researchers, however, agree that the family universally engages in socialization of the child, that process by which the values, beliefs, norms, language and customs of the group to which the family belongs, are passed on to the child (Lee, 1975).

Raising & Caring for Children

Researchers have yet to agree whether there are any universal child development indicators, or if any valid measures can be developed. One problem is that the rights of children are not viewed the same internationally. In one culture, for example, corporal punishment is abhorred, while in other cultures, it is expected to establish obedience. But most agree that the universal duty of the family and of the culture is to care for and to educate its children, even though the question of how this is done varies greatly from culture to culture (Spencer Foundation, 1998).

Mating

In all cultures, people have preferences about with whom they pair off and mate. In all cultures, these preferences determine our attraction to another person and who we attract in return. In order to be attractive and to attract, one must be able to offer resources that are deemed valuable by the culture (Buss, 2002). For a woman, perhaps beauty and the ability to bear children is the desirable resource. For a male, traditional resources may include the ability to protect and provide for the family. As societies emerge from agrarian to industrial and post industrial economies, these resources and their desirability can shift. For example, in a post industrial society, replete with high technology, and with the general acceptance of artificial insemination, divorce and single parenting, these resources and their value have begun to shift dramatically and are replaced with ideals of companionship and mutual interests.

Desertion or Adultery

While holding on to a mate requires that one be successful in continuing to supply the required resources for the relationship to continue (Buss, 2002), there is evidence throughout history that adultery is a universal pastime, but not necessarily a universal behavior. Not all societies and cultures mate for life as in traditional western marriage rites and therefore, their extramarital sexuality is viewed as normal and acceptable. But since the Code of Hammurabi, written in 1786 B.C. in the ancient city-state of Babylonia and the later Christian Ten Commandments, adultery has been universally discouraged.

Gender Differences

Males and females can be differentiated biologically utilizing primary and secondary sex characteristics. While there are some limited differences in physical ability between the sexes, gender differences such as social status and roles are socially constructed and can vary from culture to culture. Do people everywhere define masculine and feminine the same way?

Margaret Mead determined in her studies of three New Guinea societies, that culture does make a difference. Among the Arapesh of New Guinea, she observed that men and women behaved in what would be considered by western standards, feminine ways. They were cooperative and sensitive toward one another. But among the Mundugumor, both genders were aggressive and selfish, typically thought of as masculine behaviors. In the third culture, the Tchambuli, the notions of gender were reversed with women acting in dominant and rational ways, while the males were more submissive. Mead concluded that while some degree of patriarchy, the male domination of females, exists universally, culture determines notions of male and female and that these ideas can vary within a culture as well as universally (Macionis, 2007).

Prostitution

Prostitution has been known and practiced throughout history, from the ancient Greeks to contemporary society (O'Neill, 1996). The Sumerian word for female prostitute, kar-kid, is found in the earliest lists of professions dating back to ca. 2400 B.C. In China, houses of prostitution began in the 7th century, B. C. and as early as the 5th century, B.C. ancient Greek prostitutes were taxed for their earnings by the state (Lerner, 1986). In more modern times, Victorian values of social purity and Christian ideals of the good wife and mother have relegated prostitution to a level of immorality and associated it with poverty and oppression (O'Neill, 1996).

Language & Communication

Languages

If we agree that humans are naturally gregarious, or at least need one another for support and sustenance, then we realize that even the earliest peoples who lived in hordes, clans, or tribes, learned to communicate with one another through gestures and sounds: shouts, grunts, waving arms, became conventional means of expressing ideas or commands to one another in the group. Therefore, while some 6,809 languages have been identified throughout the world (Anderson, 2004), they all serve the same purpose within the group where they are practiced: to communicate and to teach those things which are universally accepted either within the culture, or among all cultures.

Facial Expressions

Research has shown that facial expressions have universal qualities. They are a central component of socialization. A child, or another member of a group who is being socialized, or resocialized, learns to read the communication of facial expressions readily to gain information. While it was previously believed that displaying emotions was a primitive practice, researchers have found that while language is one of the most important tools for socialization and imparting culture's values, rules, ideas and beliefs, facial expressions can communicate emotions far better. Humans can communicate as effectively using facial expressions, using a facial muscular structure that is more developed than any other species. Indeed, the face is a primary mode of communication for humankind.

Add the fact that facial expressions are uniquely human and that basic emotions expressed using them are universal and one can understand the unique and complex quality of making faces to communicate feelings. Even a tribesman of Borneo can understand the facial expression of a Bronx Yankees fan when her favorite team member strikes out. Of course, a Bornean tribesman probably wouldn't be attending a Yankees game, and his cultural events may differ greatly from those of a resident of New York, but a universal visual code of cues to express feelings has been identified, which transverses sex, age, race and cultural origin (Heise, 1985).

Ethnocentrism

Do all cultures have ethnocentric attitudes about other groups? Many believe that ethnocentrism, the assumption that one's own culture and way of life are superior to all others, is universal. Throughout history, ethnocentric believes have resulted in brutal civil wars and acts of genocide.

Religion

All cultures have religious beliefs and practices that seek to make sense of the unknown, or the supernatural, and generally pays homage to a god, or gods. There are many types of religions such as animism, totemism, Judaism, Hinduism, and Christianity ("Religion," n.d.). Religions rely also on ritual in terms of people, places, or things of sacred importance. Religions also rely on stories, or myths, about how the world began, and what happens to people when they die. Many religions hold to familiar-sounding myths about the virgin birth of a prophet, or spiritual leader.

Viewpoints

Global Culture

Today, some cultural practices are beginning to take on similar characteristics the world over and a more globalized culture has come to displace small, more localized cultures. As this occurs, cultural universals will become more prolific. We already see similarities in dress, music and other aspects of consumerism worldwide. English is becoming the preferred second language of many people. With the flow of information available through modern technology, ideas and material goods can be exchanged at historically unprecedented speeds. Modern transportation always great exchanges of migration from one part of the world to another is becoming a regular occurrence. These links make cultures of the world more similar, but their benefits are not available to everyone. For example, not everyone can afford the technology to get information and cannot afford the goods that are available. Also, the meanings attached to language, gestures, and other practices are different based on the culture of origin. There is still a cultural lens that colors one's perception of an experience (Macionis, 2007).

Cultural Rights

In addition, some cultures do not want to be absorbed into a global culture and they are invoking, with the help of international organizations, the notion of cultural rights. While there is no agreement about the scope of the term cultural rights, most discussions include the right of access to cultural life, the right to a cultural identity, the right to cultural survival, right to use one's own language, and the right to access and establish media in one's own language. Too, there is the right to be educated in one's own language and to protect one's cultural heritage (Huffier, 2006).

The Great Turning

If there is one thing that will become an overriding cultural universal, it is a global, ethical eco-centric movement which cultural historian Thomas Berry called The Great Work, also referred to as the Great Turning by Macy and Korten (cited in Preston, 2007). It involves a shift of perception in the relationship between humans to the whole community of life on earth, reframing the cultural stories with which people explain nature, the purpose of life and its possible revitalization or extinction. Five propositions encompass this Great Turning:

• That globalization is more than an economic entity, it involves an interdependence of the whole community of Life;

• We must have a shared quest for a human ethnic;

• That homo sapiens is part of nature, not separate from it and necessarily attempting to harness it;

• That the environment must take precedence over economics;

• We must all be motivated to look to the well-being of others, not simply our own culture, or small sphere of influence;

Cultural universals then, evolve to become badges of global citizenship as a mindset and a daily practice (Preston, 2007).

Terms & Concepts

Culture: The collection of knowledge, language, values, customs and material objects that a group of humans (or society) passes on through the generations.

Cultural Diversity: The variety of human cultures in a specific region, or in the world.

Cultural Universals: Common elements (including customs and practices) which occur within all societies.

Division of Labor: Specialized economic activity.

Education: The social institution through which society imparts knowledge in the form of skills, norms and values.

Ethnocentrism: A belief that all other cultures are inferior to one’s own culture.

Family: A social institution found in all societies that unites people in cooperative groups to care for one another, including children.

Gender: The personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being a male or female.

Global Culture: Similarities among cultures that indicate a decline in cultural diversity.

Human Nature: The sum of qualities and traits shared by all humans.

Human Universals: Same as cultural universals.

Kinship: A social bond based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption.

Language: A system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another.

Nature: Of or pertaining to biology.

Nurture: Of or pertaining to social environment and the socialization of members of a society.

Religion: A social institution involving beliefs and practices based on recognizing the sacred.

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Suggested Reading

Brown, D. E. (1991). Human universals . New York: McGraw-Hill.

Pinker, S. (2002). The blank slate: The modern denial of human nature . New York: Viking.

Romaine, S. (2000). Language in society . Second Edition. London: Oxford University Press.

Tsirogianni, S., & Andreouli, E. (2011). Beyond Social Cohesion: The Role of 'Fusion of Horizons' in Inter-group Solidarities. Papers On Social Representations, 205.1-5.25. Retrieved October 24, 2013 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text:http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=77367523&site=ehost-live