Human universals (Universales humanos) by Donald E. Brown

Vía Cristian Campos.

Human universals by Donald E. Brown:

• abstraction in speech and thought
• actions under self-control distinguished from those not under control
• aesthetics
• affection expressed and felt
• age grades
• age statuses
• age terms
• ambivalence
• anthropomorphization
• antonyms
• baby talk
• belief in supernatural/religion
• beliefs, false
• beliefs about death
• beliefs about disease
• beliefs about fortune and misfortune
• binary cognitive distinctions
• biological mother and social mother normally the same person
• black (color term)
• body adornment
• childbirth customs
• childcare
• childhood fears
• childhood fear of loud noises
• childhood fear of strangers
• choice making (choosing alternatives)
• classification
• classification of age
• classification of behavioral propensities
• classification of body parts
• classification of colors
• classification of fauna
• classification of flora
• classification of inner states
• classification of kin
• classification of sex
• classification of space
• classification of tools
• classification of weather conditions
• coalitions
• collective identities
• conflict
• conflict, consultation to deal with
• conflict, means of dealing with
• conflict, meditation of
• conjectural reasoning
• containers
• continua (ordering as cognitive pattern)
• contrasting marked and nonmarked sememes (meaningful elements in language)
• cooking
• cooperation
• cooperative labor
• copulation normally conducted in privacy
• corporate (perpetual statuses)
• coyness display
• crying
• cultural variability
• culture
• culture/nature distinction
• customary greetings
• daily routines
• dance
• death rituals
• decision making
• decision making, collective
• directions, giving of
• discrepancies between speech, thought, and action
• dispersed groups
• distinguishing right and wrong
• diurnality
• divination
• division of labor
• division of labor by age
• division of labor by sex
• dreams
• dream interpretation
• economic inequalities
• economic inequalities, consciousness of
• emotions
• empathy
• entification (treating patterns and relations as things)
• environment, adjustments to
• envy
• envy, symbolic means of coping with
• ethnocentrism
• etiquette
• explanation
• face (word for)
• facial communication
• facial expression of anger
• facial expression of contempt
• facial expression of disgust
• facial expression of fear
• facial expression of happiness
• facial expression of sadness
• facial expression of surprise
• facial expressions, masking/modifying of
• family (or household)
• father and mother, separate kin terms for
• fears
• fears, ability to overcome some
• feasting
• females do more direct childcare
• figurative speech
• fire
• folklore
• food preferences
• food sharing
• future, attempts to predict
• generosity admired
• gestures
• gift giving
• good and bad distinguished
• gossip
• government
• grammar
• group living
• groups that are not based on family
• hairstyles
• hand (word for)
• healing the sick (or attempting to)
• hospitality
• hygienic care
• identity, collective
• incest between mother and son unthinkable or tabooed
• incest, prevention or avoidance
• in-group distinguished from out-group(s)
• inheritance rules
• insulting
• intention
• interest in bioforms (living things or things that resemble them)
• interpreting behavior
• intertwining (e.g., weaving)
• jokes
• kin, close distinguished from distant
• kin groups
• kin terms translatable by basic relations of procreation
• kinship statuses
• language
• language employed to manipulate others
• language employed to misinform or mislead
• language is translatable
• language not a simple reflection of reality
• language, prestige from proficient use of
• law (rights and obligations)
• law (rules of membership)
• leaders
• lever
• linguistic redundancy
• logical notions
• logical notion of “and”
• logical notion of “equivalent”
• logical notion of “not”
• logical notion of “opposite”
• logical notion of “part/whole”
• logical notion of “same”
• magic
• magic to increase life
• magic to sustain life
• magic to win love
• male and female and adult and child seen as having different *natures
• males dominate public/political realm
• males more aggressive
• males more prone to lethal violence
• males more prone to theft
• manipulate social relations
• marking at phonemic, syntactic, and lexical levels
• marriage
• materialism
• meal times
• meaning, most units of are non-universal
• measuring
• medicine
• melody
• memory
• metaphor
• metonym
• mood- or consciousness-altering techniques and/or substances
• morphenes
• mother normally has consort during child-rearing years
• mourning
• murder proscribed
• music
• music, children’s
• music related in part to dance
• music related in part to religious activity
• music seen as art (a creation)
• music, vocal
• music, vocal, includes speech forms
• musical redundancy
• musical repetition
• musical variation
• myths
• narrative
• nomenclature (perhaps the same as classification)
• nonbodily decorative art
• normal distinguished from abnormal states
• nouns
• numerals (counting)
• Oedipus complex
• oligarchy (de facto)
• one (numeral)
• onomatopoeia
• oversestimating objectivity of thought
• pain
• past/present/future
• person, concept of
• personal names
• phonemes
• phonemes defined by sets of minimally contrasting features
• phonemes, merging of
• phonemes, range from 10 to 70 in number
• phonemic changes, inevitability of
• phonemic change, rules of
• phonemic system
• planning
• planning for future
• play
• play to perfect skills
• poetry/rhetoric
• poetic line, uniform length range
• poetic lines characterized by repetition and variation
• poetic lines demarcated by pauses
• polysemy (one word has several related meanings)
• possessive, intimate
• possessive, loose
• practice to improve skills
• preference for own children and close kin (nepotism)
• prestige inequalities
• private inner life
• promise
• pronouns
• pronouns, minimum two numbers
• pronouns, minimum three persons
• proper names
• property
• psychological defence mechanisms
• rape
• rape proscribed
• reciprocal exchanges (of labor, goods, or services)
• reciprocity, negative (revenge, retaliation)
• reciprocity, positive
• recognition of individuals by face
• redress of wrongs
• rhythm
• right-handedness as population norm
• rites of passage
• rituals
• role and personality seen in dynamic interrelationship (i.e., *departures from role can be explained in terms of individual personality)
• sanctions
• sanctions for crimes against the collectivity
• sanctions include removal from the social unit
• self distinguished from other
• self as neither wholly passive nor wholly autonomous
• self as subject and object
• self is responsible
• semantics
• semantic category of affecting things and people
• semantic category of dimension
• semantic category of giving
• semantic category of location
• semantic category of motion
• semantic category of speed
• semantic category of other physical properties
• semantic components
• semantic components, generation
• semantic components, sex
• sememes, commonly used ones are short, infrequently used ones are longer
• sense unified
• sex (gender) terminology is fundamentally binary
• sex statuses
• sexual attraction
• sexual attractiveness
• sexual jealousy
• sexual modesty
• sexual regulation
• sexual regulation includes incest prevention
• sexuality as focus of interest
• shelter
• sickness and death seen as related
• snakes, wariness around
• social structure
• socialization
• socialization expected from senior kin
• socialization includes toilet training
• spear
• special speech for special occasions
• statuses and roles
• statuses, ascribed and achieved
• statuses distinguished from individuals
• statuses on other then sex, age, or kinship bases
• stop/nonstop contrasts (in speech sounds)
• succession
• sweets preferred
• symbolism
• symbolic speech
• synonyms
• taboos
• tabooed foods
• tabooed utterances
• taxonomy
• territoriality
• time
• time, cyclicity of
• tools
• tool dependency
• tool making
• tools for cutting
• tools to make tools
• tools patterned culturally
• tools, permanent
• tools for pounding
• trade
• triangular awareness (assessing relationships among the self and two other people)
• true and fake distinguished
• turn-taking
• two (numeral)
• tying material (i.e., something like string)
• units of time
• verbs
• violence, some forms proscribed
• visiting
• vocalic/nonvocalic contrasts in phonemes
• vowel contrasts
• weaning
• weapons
• weather control (attempts to)
• white (color term)
• world view

Añadidos desde 1989

• anticipation
• attachment
• critical learning periods
• differential valuations
• dominance/submission
• fairness (equity), concept of
• fear of death
• habituation
• hope
• husband older than wife on average
• imagery
• institutions (organized co-activities)
• intention
• interpolation
• judging others
• likes and dislikes
• making comparisons
• males, on average, travel greater distances over lifetime
• males engage in more coalitional violence
• mental maps
• mentalese
• moral sentiments
• moral sentiments, limited effective range of
• precedence, concept of (that’s how the leopard got its spots)
• pretend play
• pride
• proverbs, sayings
• proverbs, sayings–in mutually contradictory forms
• resistance to abuse of power, to dominance
• risk-taking
• self-control
• self-image, awareness of (concern for what others think)
• self-image, wanted to be positive
• sex differences in spatial cognition and behavior
• shame
• stinginess, disapproval of
• sucking wounds
• synesthetic metaphors
• thumb sucking
• tickling
• toys, playthings