Human Universals
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[Outlines his concept of a universal grammar.]
Chomsky, Noam, and Morris Halle
*1968
The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.
[Linguistic universals.]
Chomsky, Noam, and Stuart Hampshire
*1968
Noam Chomsky and Stuart Hampshire Discuss the Study of Language. Listener 79 (2044):687–688, 690–691.
[Brief explication of Chomsky’s conception of a universal grammar that must reflect an innate language faculty. No language forms questions by simply reversing the word order of any declarative sentence. All rules for forming a sentence are structure dependent rather than content dependent.]
Clark, J. Desmond
1986
The Origins of Fire: A Basic Human Invention. Lecture delivered at the Institute of Human Origins, Berkeley.
Collier, Jane F., and Michelle Z. Rosaldo
*1981
Politics and Gender in Simple Societies. In Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality, edited by Sherry B. Ortner and Harriet Whitehead, pp. 275–329. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[Sex and age universals.]
Comrie, Bernard
*1981
Language Universals and Linguistic Typology: Syntax and Morphology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[Defends the cross-language study of universals (a procedure generally associated with Joseph Greenberg) as opposed to the in-depth search within a single language for the universal deep structure that must underlie its surface particularities (a procedure generally associated with Noam Chomsky). Discusses formal and substantive universals, negative universals, implicational and nonimplicational universals, and absolute universals and tendencies. Discusses three basic means of explaining linguistic universals: monogenesis (cradle traits), innateness (and other psychological explanations), and explanations in terms of the functional or other pragmatic requirements of language. Among the specific universals mentioned: first- and second-person pronouns.]
Conklin, Harold C.
1955
Hanunóo Color Categories. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 11:339–344.
Connolly, Bob, and Robin Anderson
1987
First Contact. New York: Viking Penguin.
Coon, Carleton S.
*1946
The Universality of Natural Groupings in Human Societies. Journal of Educational Sociology 20:163–168.
*1948
A Reader in General Anthropology. New York: Holt and Company.
[Besides presenting a universal framework for the study of anthropology, an appendix gives a number of universals. They include daily routines; the distinctions between self and others, people and the rest of the world; symbols; recognition of signs; sociality; marriage or the conjugal relationship; using hands to fight; tools; division of labor by age and sex; interpersonal grooming; early socialization by parents (particularly mothers) and other close kin; problem solving by trial-and-error, insight, and reasoning; rules and leadership to govern the allocation of important resources; games; artistic expression; joking; losing one’s temper; procuring and processing raw materials; more time and care spent on ritual or symbolic objects than on (similar?) utilitarian objects; use of fire; tool making; containers; trade and transport of goods; activities conducted by dyads and groups; supervision or leadership; adjusting joint activities to personalities; statuses and roles; right and wrong ways to do things (rules and regulations); sexual regulations; group regulation of individual action; family; and kinship terms.]
Cosmides, Leda, and John Tooby
1987
From Evolution to Behavior: Evolutionary Psychology as the Missing Link. In The Latest on the Best: Essays on Evolution and Optimality, edited by John Dupré, pp. 277–306. Cambridge: MIT Press.
1989
Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, Part II. Case Study: A Computational Theory of Social Exchange. Ethology and Sociobiology 10:51–97.
Crick, Malcolm R.
*1982
Anthropology of Knowledge. Annual Review of Anthropology 11:287–313.
[See section entitled “Categories and Universals.”]
Daly, Martin, and Margo Wilson
1983
Sex, Evolution, and Behavior. 2d ed. Boston: Willard Grant Press. (First published in 1978.)
*1988
Homicide. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
[Nepotism, sex differences in homicide, the regulation of sex, revenge, lethal retribution, morality, responsibility, the senses of duty and indebtedness, the concept of provocation, resentment, and empathic understanding. This is a major exposition and application of evolutionary psychology.]
Daly, Martin, Margo Wilson, and Suzanne J. Weghorst
*1982
Male Sexual Jealousy. Ethology and Sociobiology 3:11–27.
d’Aquili, Eugene G., and Charles D. Laughlin, Jr.
*1979
The Neurobiology of Myth and Ritual. In The Spectrum of Ritual: A Bio-genetic Structural Analysis, by Eugene G. d’Aquili, et al., pp. 152–182. New York: Columbia University Press.
[Conceptualization, causal thinking, and binary distinctions produce myth.]
Darwin, Charles
1872
The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals. London: Murray.
Dasen, P. R.
*1977
Are Cognitive Processes Universal? A Contribution to Cross-Cultural Piagetian Psychology. In Studies in Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 1, edited by Neil Warren, pp.155–201. London: Academic Press.
Dasen, Pierre, and A. Heron
*1981
Cross-Cultural Tests of Piaget’s Theory. Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Vol. 4, Developmental Psychology, edited by H. C. Triandis and A. Heron, pp. 295–335. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
[Available studies suggest universal stages of cognitive development.]
Davenport, William H.
*1987
The Cultural Anthropology of Sex: Description (Ethnography) and Comparison (Ethnology). In Theories of Human Sexuality, edited by James H. Geer and William T. O’Donohue, pp. 197–236. New York: Plenum.
[The regulation of sexuality; privacy with respect to some aspects of sexuality; an implicit or explicit conception of reproduction; objects, actions, symbols, signals, and sayings that convey erotic, reproductive, and gender meanings; sexual modesty (always in some way related to the genitals); and personal adornment.]
Devereux, George
*1967
A Typological Study of Abortion in 350 Primitive, Ancient, and Pre-Industrial Societies. In Abortion in America: Medical, Psychiatric, Legal, Anthropological, and Religious Considerations, edited by Harold Rosen, pp. 97–152. Boston: Beacon Press. (First published in 1954.)
De Waal, Frans
*1982
Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes. New York: Harper.
[Discusses various universals, among them the ability to think about social relations between other individuals: triangular awareness.]
Di Leonardo, Micaela
*1979
Methodology and the Misinterpretation of Women’s Status in Kinship Studies: A Case Study of Goodenough and the Definition of Marriage. American Ethnologist 6:627–637.
Dissanayake, Ellen
*1988
What Is Art For? Seattle: University of Washington Press.
[Body decoration, play, games, rules, the association of art with ritual, etiquette, symbol, metaphor, the concept of “specialness” or of “making special,” tool making, the need to impose order, classification, consciousness of birth and death, worldview, sociality, need for novelty.]
Dixon, R. M. W.
*1977
Where Have All the Adjectives Gone? Studies in Language 1:19–80.
[Says that the grammatical classes verb and noun are found in all languages. Proposes a number of “universal semantic types,” for which a
ll languages have at least some items in their lexicon: motion (e.g., items like “go”), giving (“give,” “donate,” “lend,” etc.), corporeal (“laugh,” “sneeze”), objects (“stone,” “tree”), kin (“uncle,” “son”), dimension (“large,” “deep”), color (“black,” “white”), value (“good,” “bad”), human propensity (“jealous,” “clever”), physical property (“sweet,” “solid”), speed (“fast,” “slow”), etc.]
Douglas, Mary
1966
Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York: Praeger.
Dumont, Louis
*1980
Homo Hierachicus: The Caste System and Its Implications. Rev. English ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[Universality of hierarchy.]
Durden-Smith, Jo, and Diane Desimone
*1983
Sex and the Brain. New York: Arbor House.
Durkheim, Émile
1962
The Rules of the Sociological Method. 8th ed., translated by Sarah A. Solovay and John H. Mueller and edited by George E. G. Catlin. Glencoe: Free Press of Glencoe.
Eberhard, William G.
1985
Sexual Selection and Animal Genitalia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenäus
*1979
Human Ethology: Concepts and Implications for the Sciences. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2:1–57.
[Includes discussions of various alleged universals, e.g., approach-avoidance ambivalence.]
*1989
Human Ethology. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
[The relaxed open-mouth play face, mothers raising tonal frequency when speaking to children, sexual modesty, the eyebrow flash, the expression of surprise, naming objects, curiosity, and other possible universals.]
Ekman, Paul
*1972
Universals and Cultural Differences in Facial Expressions of Emotion. In Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 1971, edited by James K. Cole, pp. 207–283. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
*1973
Cross-Cultural Studies of Facial Expression. In Darwin and Facial Expression: A Century of Research in Review, edited by Paul Ekman, pp. 169–222. New York: Academic Press.
*1975
The Universal Smile: Face Muscles Talk Every Language. Psychology Today (September):35–39.
Ekman, Paul, and Wallace V. Friesen
*1986
A New Pan-Cultural Facial Expression of Emotion. Motivation and Emotion 10:159–168.
[The facial expression of contempt is universal. Cf. Izard and Haynes 1987.]
Ekman, Paul, E. R. Sorenson, and W. V. Friesen
*1969
Pan-Cultural Elements in Facial Displays of Emotion. Science 164:86–88.
Ellen, Roy
*1988
Fetishism. Man 23:213–235.
[Concretisation, anthropomorphisation, and conflation of signifier with signified are universal thought processes.]
Ember, Carol R., and Melvin Ember
1973
Cultural Anthropology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Erasmus, Charles
1961
Review of The Evolution of Man, edited by Sol Tax. American Anthropologist 63:383–389.
Ethnomusicology
*1971
[Vol. 15, no. 3 publishes four papers on the possibility of universals in music.]
Fagen, Robert
*1981
Animal Play Behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.
[Includes data and analyses of human play.]
Farr, Robert M.
*1981
On the Nature of Human Nature and the Science of Behaviour. In Heelas and Lock, pp. 303–317.
[Interpreting rather than merely observing human behavior is universal.]
Field, Tiffany M., and Nathan A. Fox, eds.
1985
Social Perception in Infants. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex.
Finkelhor, David
1980
Sex among Siblings: A Survey on Prevalence, Variety, and Effects. Archives of Sexual Behavior 9:171–193.
Fisher, R. A.
1930
The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fodor, Jerry A.
1983
The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Foote, Russell, and Jack Woodward
*1973
A Preliminary Investigation of Obscene Language. Journal of Psychology 83:263–275.
[Suggest that tabooed utterances—obscenity is an example—are universal.]
Forge, Anthony
*1973
Introduction. In Forge, ed., pp. xiii–xxii.
[Art and the transformation and elaboration of the human body are universals.]
Forge, Anthony, ed.
*1973
Primitive Art and Society. London: Oxford University Press.
Fortes, Meyer
1969
Kinship and the Social Order: The Legacy of Lewis Henry Morgan. Chicago: Aldine.
Foster, George M.
*1972
The Anatomy of Envy: A Study in Symbolic Behavior. Current Anthropology 13:165–202.
[Envy is present in all societies and all individuals. Fear of the consequences of envy, and symbolic means to cope with it, are also universal.]
Fox, J. R. [Robin]
1962
Sibling Incest. British Journal of Sociology 13:128–150.
*1967
Kinship and Marriage. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
[Kinship, inheritance, succession, male predominance in public decision making, the mother-child tie, classification.]
*1971
The Cultural Animal. In Man and Beast: Comparative Social Behavior, edited by J. F. Eisenberg and Wilton S. Dillon, pp. 273–296. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
[Ethnocentrism, inheritance, exchange, dispute settlement, a system of social statuses and methods of indicating it, tool and weapon making, kinship groups, schizophrenia, and other items listed below in Tiger and Fox.]
*1973
Encounter with Anthropology. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
*1979
Kinship Categories as Natural Categories. In Chagnon and Irons, pp. 132–144.
*1980
The Red Lamp of Incest. New York: Dutton.
[In addition to incest avoidance, discusses other universals too: rules, classification, kin classification, binary distinctions, imposing order on the universe, metaphor, exchange, reciprocity, gift-giving, taxonomy, taboo, anthropomorphising, time, space, logic, and the logical notions of relationship, identity, part-whole, class-subclass, hierarchy, same, opposite, causation, and dimension.]
*1989
The Search for Society: Quest for a Biosocial Science and Morality. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
[Reprints articles, published over nearly two decades, that conceptualize universals more at the level of “process” than “substance.”]
Frake, Charles O.
*1963
The Ethnographic Study of Cognitive Systems. In Anthropology and Human Behavior, edited by Thomas Gladwin and William C. Sturtevant, pp. 72–85. Washington, D.C.: Anthropological Society of Washington.
[Taxonomy is fundamental to human thinking.]
Freeman, Derek
1970
Human Nature and Culture. In Man and the New Biology, by R. O. Slatyer et al., pp. 50–75. Canberra: Australian National University Press.
*1974
Kinship, Attachment Behaviour and the Primary Bond. In The Character of Kinship, edited by Jack Goody, pp. 109–119. Cambridge University Press.
*1981
The Anthropology of Choice. Canberra Anthropology 4:82–100.
*1983
Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth. Cambridge: Harva
rd University Press.
1989
Fa’apua’a Fa’amū and Margaret Mead. American Anthropologist 91:1017–1022.
Fridlund, Alan J.
*1991
Evolution and Facial Action in Reflex, Social Motive, and Paralanguage. In Advances in Psychophysiology, vol. 4, edited by P. K. Ackles, J. R. Jennings, and M. G. H. Coles. London: Kingsley.
Friedrich, Paul
*1975
The Lexical Symbol and Its Relative Non-Arbitrariness. In Linguistics and Anthropology: In Honor of C. F. Voegelin, edited by M. Dale Kinkade, Kenneth L. Hale, and Oswald Werner, pp. 199–247. Lisse: Peter De Ridder Press.
[Categories of shape are probably represented in all languages.]
Fromm, Erich
1961
Marx’s Concept of Man: With a Translation from Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts by T. B. Bottomore. New York: Ungar.
Furst, Peter
*1976
Hallucinogens and Culture. San Francisco: Chandler and Sharp.
Garcia, John, and Robert A. Koelling
1966
Relation of Cue to Consequence in Avoidance Learning. Psychonomic Science 4:123–124. (Reprinted in Seligman and Hager.)
Gardner, Howard
1974
The Shattered Mind: The Person after Brain Damage. New York: Vintage Books.
1985
The Mind’s New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution. New York: Basic Books.
Geertz, Clifford
*1957
Ethos, World-View and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols. Antioch Review 17:421–437.
[All peoples’ religions consist of an “ethos” and a “worldview”; i.e., serious moral “oughts” grounded in conceptions of the way the world is.]