Note
Cultural universals As the label implies, the concept of a "cultural universal" refers to something that appears in all known human societies. G.P.Murdock ("The Common Denominator of Culture", 1945) identified a large number of cultural universals, ranging from the very general (all societies have some form of division of labour, for example) to the very specific (all societies have incest taboos, for example). One point to note here, however, is that the question of whether or not something exists in all known societies depends to some extent on how you define it. For example, the fact that a "division of labour" may exist in all societies may be significant, but it also hides the fact that how (and by whom) different tasks are organised and performed may differ widely from one society to the next. As we will see, the existence of "universal cultural features" is sometimes claimed as evidence of some underlying force organising human behaviour (this is usually expressed in genetic or biological terms although, of course, this idea sometimes finds a cultural expression in religion - the idea of a "God" or "gods" as the underlying organisational force). While sociologists would probably argue that cultural universals (if they actually exist on any but the most general level) are evidence of some organisational force, their explanation for their existence is, as we will see, somewhat different... |