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
Universal Postulates Everywhere!
Popular Universality in Visual Media: "The Family of Man"
Normative Universalism
Chapter 2. A World of Cultures: Their Differences and Likenesses
Finding Patterns in Diversity: George Peter Murdock and Donald Edward Brown
Universals as Subject Matter: Concept, Terms and Metaphors
Universals do matter: The Relevance of Universals in General and for Cultural Studies
Universals in Cultural Anthropology Today: the forgotten Half in the Science of Humanity
Chapter 3. Cultures and Human Nature: Human Beings are biologically Cultural
The Nexus of Intra-cultural Diversity and Universals
Human Nature and the Proper Image of Who We Are
Homo sapiens: Uniqueness versus Special Status
Chapter 4. Universals: Examples from Several Realms
Qualifying Remarks
Narration and Expressive Culture
Sociality
Worldview and Images of Humanity
Rituals and Beliefs
Cognition and Knowledge
Languages and Speaking
Behavior and Experience
Gender, Sexuality and Social Reproduction
Chapter 5. Methods: Deduction, Case Studies and Comparison
Finding Potential Candidates and Deducing from Theory
Case Studies: Testing Postulated Universals
Concepts beyond Cultural Bias?
Inventories of Universals
Evaluating Lists of Universals and Holistic Forms of Representation
Cross-cultural Comparison
Cross-species Comparison
Chapter 6. Taxonomy: The Forms, Levels and Depth of Universals
Levels, Spheres and Time Frame
Substance and Depth
Degree of Universality
Conditional Universals and other Specific Forms
Relations between basic Anthropological Orientations
Chapter 7. Toward Explanation: Why do Universals exist?
Ten Pitfalls in Research and in Anti-universalism
Systematics of Explanatory Approaches
Cultural Contact: Universals through Cultural Transfer and Diffusion
Function, Convergence and Structural Implication: Emerging Universals through Real-Life Circumstances
Evolution: Universals Based on Adaptation
Complex Causes
Chapter 8. Critical Positions: Arguments against Universalism
Reification, Hidden Syllogisms and Implicit Primitivity
Relativist and Empirical Criticisms
Fundamental Criticism: Charges of Eurocentrism and Hegemony
Chapter 9. Synthesis: Human Universals and the Human Sciences
Bibliography
Index
