Full Description
Since the politicization of anthropology in the 1970s, most anthropologists have been reluctant to approach the topic of universals-that is, phenomena that occur regularly in all known human societies. In this volume, Christoph Antweiler reasserts the importance of these cross-cultural commonalities for anthropological research and for life and co-existence beyond the academy. The question presented here is how anthropology can help us approach humanity in its entirety, understanding the world less as a globe, with an emphasis on differences, but as a planet, from a vantage point open to commonalities.
Contents
List of Tables
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1. Humankind: Current Societal Debates
Chapter 2. A World of Cultures: Their Differences and Likenesses
Chapter 3. Cultures and Human Nature: Human Beings are biologically Cultural
Chapter 4. Universals: Examples from Several Realms
Chapter 5. Methods: Deduction, Case Studies and Comparison
Chapter 6. Taxonomy: The Forms, Levels and Depth of Universals
Chapter 7. Toward Explanation: Why do Universals exist?
Chapter 8. Critical Positions: Arguments against Universalism
Chapter 9. Synthesis: Human Universals and the Human Sciences
Bibliography
Index
