Human Universals

For those elements, patterns, traits, and institutions that are common to all human cultures worldwide, but may be shared with non-humans, see Cultural universals.

Human Universals

File:Universals.gif Cover of the first edition
Author	Donald Brown
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Non-fiction (Cultural anthropology)
Publisher	McGraw Hill
Publication date	1991
Media type	Print (Cloth)
Pages	220
ISBN	0-87722-841-8
OCLC	22860694

Human Universals is a book by Donald Brown, an American professor of anthropology (emeritus) who worked at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It was published by McGraw Hill in 1991. Brown says human universals, "comprise those features of culture, society, language, behavior, and psyche for which there are no known exception."

Those unique to humans

According to Brown, there are hundreds of universals unique to humans.

Influence

He is quoted at length by Steven Pinker in an appendix to The Blank Slate, where Pinker cites some of the hundreds of universals listed by Brown. However, Pinker's universals are not unique to humans.

References

• George P. Murdock in Linton, The Science of Man in the World Crisis (1945)
• Murdock's concepts were updated by Donald E. Brown, Human Universals (1991)

External links

• Human Universals. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991.
• List of Universals from the book.
• Chapter by Brown
• Introduction to Human Universals and Methods of research by Donald E. Brown
• Humans share same characteristics - Paper, University of British Columbia