211 Universal Human Traits

In Human Universals, Anthropologist Donald E. Brown posited a list of several hundred human traits, “features of culture, society, language, behavior, and psyche for which there are no known exception”—characteristics that represent the evolution of our species’ mental adaptation to communal life.

In this list, “they,” “them,” and “their” refer to the people of any given culture.

They are aware of a difference between culture and nature
Culture is embodied in their language
They think about and discuss their internal state and the external world
They use language to organize, respond to and manipulate the behavior of their fellows (Note: their language is a window into their culture, minds, and actions)
Language allows them to think and speak in abstraction
Language allows them to think and speak about things or processes not physically present
Proficient use of language gains prestige, especially for males (because skillful speech allows him to manipulate the behavior of his fellows more effectively)
Gossip is an important means of verbal manipulation
Non-verbal expression allows more meaning than mere words indicate
Speech is used to misinform as well as to inform
Individuals understand lying and watch for it in others
Language use includes ways to be funny and to insult
Speech is highly symbolic
Sound and sense (meaning) are only arbitrarily associated
Language includes phonemic, grammatical and semantic features
Speech phonemes form a system of contrasts (e.g. kill vs. kiss or pat vs. bat) and the number of phonemes is from 10 to 70
Language undergoes change
Language includes a series of contrasting terms that theoretically could be phrased in 3 ways, but are only phrased in 2 ways (for example, “wide” and “narrow” are terms that enable us to express contrast without having to say “wide” and “not wide” or “narrow” and “not narrow”)
By virtue of its grammar, the language conveys some information redundantly. For example, in English both the subject and verb convey number.
The grammar includes nouns and verbs, and the possessive – possessive of both “intimate” or “inalienable” possessions–“my hands;” and “loose” or “alienable” possessions– “my axe”)
There are special forms of speech for special occasions
The language includes figurative speech (metaphor and metonymy)
There is onomatopoeic speech
There is poetry in which lines, demarcated by pauses, are about 3 seconds in duration
There are unique specific elementary units of meaning not found in other cultures
A few words or meanings are found in all cultures (e.g., black, white, hand, face)
There is kin terminology
Durational time is explicit (or rarely semantically implicit) in the language, and the language has units of time (days, months, seasons, years, etc.)
There is a temporal cyclicity to their lives
They distinguish past, present and future
The language classifies many different topics such as parts of the body, inner states (such as emotions, sensations and thoughts), flora, fauna, etc.
The language refers to such semantic categories as motion, speed, location, dimension, and other physical properties; to giving (e.g., lending); and to affecting things or people
Some words will have multiple meanings
There are numerous antonyms and synonyms
More frequently used words will tend to be shorter, and less frequently used words are longer
Language includes proper names and pronouns – at least 3 persons (e.g. I, you, he), and 2 categories of number (e.g. singular and plural)
Language includes numerals (at least one, two and many)
There are separate kin categories that include father and mother
Kinship terms are partially or wholly translatable by reference to relationships inherent in procreation (e.g. father, son)
They have an age terminology that includes age grades in a linear sequence (e.g. baby, child, adolescent, adult)
They have a sex terminology that is fundamentally dualistic (even if there are 3 or 4 categories)
Naming and taxonomy are fundamental to their cognition, including binary discriminations (such as black and white) and gradations between polar opposites.
There are elementary logical notions (“not,” “and,” “same,” “equivalent,” “opposite,” etc.)
They distinguish the general from the particular, and parts from wholes
They use conjectural reasoning (e.g., using minute cues to deduce the presence of animals)
Language is not the only means of symbolic communication (e.g., gestures, exclamations)
They interpret external behavior to grasp interior intention
Facial communication is complex – and several facial expressions are recognized everywhere
Smiling while greeting signifies friendly intentions
They cry when they feel unhappiness or pain
They can mask, modify and mimic otherwise spontaneous expressions
They show affection as well as feel it
They have a psychological conceptualization of people (awareness of self in relation to others)
They distinguish the self from others
They see the self as subject and object
They see people as influencing events (i.e. as neither wholly passive recipients of external action nor wholly autonomous)
They see people as responsible for their actions
They distinguish actions that are under control from those that are not
They understand the concept of intention
They know people have a private inner life
They know people experience pain and other emotions
They distinguish normal from abnormal mental states
They recognize that individuals have differing characters
They are capable of empathy
They are moved by sexual attraction
They have childhood fears (loud noises, strangers)
They react emotionally (usually with fear) to snakes
With effort they can overcome some of their fears
The Oedipus complex is a part of male psychology
They recognize individuals by their faces, which means they have a concept of the individual (often implicit)
They recognize individuals in other ways as well
They make tools, of many different kinds
They are dependent on their tools
They use tools to make tools
They make cutters
They make pounders
They make containers
They make something like string (cord, vine, wire, etc) to tie things together
And to make interlaced materials
They know and use the lever
They have weapons
They make tools that can be used over and over again
They make some tools in arbitrary patterns that allow us to distinguish one people’s tools from another, and these patterns persist beyond any one person’s lifetime
Most of them are right-handed
They know how to use fire (most cultures know how to make it)
They use fire to cook food and for other purposes as well
Tools and fire do much to make them more comfortable and secure
They have other ways to make themselves feel better, including substances like intoxicants, stimulants, or narcotics
They have some form of shelter from the elements
They have patterns of preparation for birth
And for giving birth
And for postnatal care
They have a more or less standard pattern and time for weaning infants
They live part or all of their lives in groups
An important group is the family
One or more groups maintain a unity even though the members are dispersed
There are groups defined by locality or claiming certain territory, even if they happen to live almost their entire lives as wanderers upon the sea
They are materially, cognitively, and emotionally adjusted to the environment in which they normally live
They are characterized by a sense of being a distinct people
They judge other people in their own terms
The normal family core is composed of a mother and children
The biological mother usually is the social mother
There usually is a man involved on a more or less permanent basis
He serves minimally to give the children a status in the community and/or to be a consort to the mother
There is an institutionalized publicly recognized right of sexual access to a woman deemed eligible for childbearing (e.g., marriage) – almost always by a male, not always by a single individual
There is a pattern of socialization – children are not left to grow up on their own
Senior kin are expected to contribute substantially to socialization
One way children learn is by watching elders and copying them
Socialization includes toilet training
Through practice, children and adults perfect what they learn
They learn some things by trial and error
One’s own children and other close kin are distinguished from more distant relatives or nonrelatives, and close kin are favored in various contexts
Sexual regulations affect relationships between family members and relationships to outsiders, limiting or eliminating mating between genetically close kin
Mother-son mating is taboo
Sex is a topic of great interest, though there may be contexts in which it is not discussed
There is a social structure, with statuses and roles
Some statuses and roles are based on kinship, age and sex
There are statuses and roles beyond kinship, age and sex
There are both ascribed statuses (e.g., based on kinship, age, sex) and achieved statuses
There are rules of succession to some statuses
There are social identities, including collective identities, that are distinguishable from the individuals who bear them – i.e., some statuses are spoken of as if they were entities that can act and be acted upon (e.g., the legislature punished the university)
Prestige is differentially distributed, and not all individuals are economically equal
Inequalities of various sorts are acknowledged (they may be approved of or disapproved of)
There is a division of labor – minimally based on age and sex statuses, e.g., women have more direct child care duties than men
Children do not engage in the same activities in the same way as adults
Men and women, and children and adults are seen as having different natures
Men on average are more physically aggressive than women and are more likely to murder
Men form the dominant public political element
Women and children are correspondingly submissive or acquiescent (particularly) in the public political sphere
In addition to division of labor, there are customs of cooperative labor
There are reciprocal exchanges, whether of labor, or goods, or services, in a variety of settings
Reciprocity (including retaliation) is an important element in the conduct of peoples’ lives
They engage in trade
They give gifts, too, whether reciprocal or not
In certain contexts, food is shared
They attempt to predict and plan for the future
Some plans involve the maintenance or manipulation of social relations
They have triangular awareness – they think of their own relationships to others and of the relationships between others in relation to themselves
They form coalitions
They have government
Some regulation takes place in a framework of corporate statuses – statuses with orderly procedures for perpetuating membership in them
They have leaders, though they may be ephemeral or situational
They profess to admire generosity, and this is particularly desired in a leader
No leader has complete power lodged in himself alone
Leaders go beyond the limits of reason and morality
They always have a de facto oligarchy, since they never have a complete democracy, and they never have a complete autocracy
They have law (at least rules of membership, rights and obligations)
Violence and rape are proscribed in certain situations
Unjustified murder is proscribed
There are sanctions for infractions, including removing offenders from the social unit, whether by expulsion, incarceration, ostracism, or execution
They punish certain acts that threaten the group or are alleged to do so
Conflict is more familiar than they wish it were, and they have (imperfect) ways of dealing with it
Wronged parties may seek redress
Consultation and mediation are used in some conflict cases
Important conflicts are structured around in-group-out-group antagonisms
These antagonisms divide them as an ethnic group as well as set them off from other ethnic groups
Ethical dualism distinguishes the in-group from the out-group
Right is distinguished from wrong
Responsibility and intentionality are recognized
Promises are recognized and employed
Reciprocity is a key element in morality
Ability to empathize also is a key element in morality
Envy is ubiquitous, and there are symbolic means for dealing with its unfortunate consequences such tipping a waiter, offering consolation prizes, or having losers congratulate winners
Ideals include etiquette and hospitality
There are customary greetings and customs of visiting kin or others who dwell elsewhere
There are standardized, preferred, or typical times of day to eat
There are feast occasions
There are normal daily routines of activities
They are fundamentally diurnal
There are standards of sexual modesty
Copulation normally is not done in public
There are some attempts to use modesty in relieving themselves
Certain utterances are taboo
Some foods are taboo
There are some foods (e.g., sweets) that are relished
There are religious or supernatural beliefs beyond the visible and palpable
They anthropomorphize and some (if not all) of them believe things that are demonstrably false
Magic is practiced to do such things as to sustain and increase life and to win the attention of the opposite sex
There are theories of fortune and misfortune
There are explanations for disease and death
Sickness is seen to be connected to death
There are medications (and other procedures) to heal the sick
Divination is practiced
There are attempts to control the weather
There are rituals
Rituals include rites of passage that demarcate the transfer of someone from one status to another
The dead are mourned
There is an understanding or conceptualization of the world & their place in it
Their worldview in some ways is structured by features of their mind, e.g. the ability of infants to recognize the same item through more than one sense
Their worldview is a part of their supernatural and mythological beliefs
They have folklore
They dream and attempt to interpret their dreams
They are materialists, however spiritual they may be
There are concepts of property, distinguishing what belongs to the individual or group from what belongs to others
There are rules for the inheritance of property
Speech is used in poetic or polished ways
There are additional aesthetic standards
Bodies are adorned in one way or another
They have distinctive ways of maintaining or shaping their hair
There are standards of sexual attractiveness (e.g., signs of good health, male preference for signs of early nubility)
Artifacts are decorated
There also are patterns of hygienic care
They know how to dance and have music
At least some dance, and some of their religious activity, is accompanied by music
Music includes melody, rhythm, repetition, redundancy, and variation
Music is seen as an art, a creation
Music includes vocals
These vocals include words, a conjunction of music and poetry
There is children’s music
There is play and play fighting, especially for children
Play provides training in skills that will be useful in adulthood