Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Cultural Universals and Cultural Particulars


Anthropologist George Murdock (1945) distinguished between cultural universals and particulars. Cultural universals are those things that all cultures have in common. Every culture has natural resources such as trees, plants, and rocks that people put to some use. In addition, every culture has developed responses to the challenges of being human and living with others. Those challenges include the need to interact with others, to be mentally stimulated, to satisfy hunger, and to face mortality. In every culture, people have established specific ways of meeting these universal challenges.

Cultural particulars include the specific practices that distinguish cultures from one another. For example all people become hungry but the potential food sources defined as edible vary across cultures. That is what is appealing to eat in one society may be considered repulsive or simply unavailable in another.

No comments:

Labels

Aboriginal (1) Acheulian tool (1) Age-Groups (1) Alliance (1) Animatism (1) anthropology (1) Anthropology of Art (1) Ashrama system (1) Associations (1) Attributes of Culture (1) autochthony (1) avoidance (1) Basics (1) bio ethics (1) biological adaptation (1) Birsa Movement (1) Bongaism (1) branches of anthropology (1) Bride Wealth (1) Cargo Cults (1) Castes among Muslims (1) Catholics (1) civilization (1) Clifford Geertz (2) Cognitive Anthropology (1) Compadrazgo (1) Cope's law (1) Cross Cousin (1) cultural anthrology (1) Cultural Borrowings (1) cultural citizenship (1) Cultural Ecology (1) Cultural imperialism (1) Cultural Materialism (1) cultural rights (1) culture (2) Culture and Motive (1) Darwinism (1) Demographic Transition (1) Derek Freeman (1) descent (2) Deviance (1) Diffusionism (1) DNA (1) DNA Technology (1) dollo's law (1) Dormitories (1) Dowry (1) Durkheim (1) Early Human Ancestors (1) Eco System Concept (1) Ecological Anthropology (1) Edward Sapir (1) emic/etic (1) Endogamy (1) Environment (1) Eskimo System of Kinship (1) Ethnicity (1) Ethnocentric (1) ethnoecology (1) Ethnographic Monographs (1) ethnography (1) Evans Pritchard (2) Evolutionism (1) Exogamy (1) Extended family (1) family (2) Female Genital Mutilation (1) Feminism (1) field studies (1) fieldwork (1) Flake Culture (1) folklore (1) fossil (1) Functional Theories on Primitive Religion (1) Gause's law (1) gender bias (1) Gender expectations (1) Generalized Exchange (1) Genetic Adaptation (1) Genetic Change (1) Genetic Screening (1) Genetics (1) Genetics and its Relevance to Physical Anthropology (1) George Peter Murdock (1) Hardy-Weinberg Law of Equilibrium (1) Hawaiian System of Kinship (1) Hominids (1) Homo Erectus (1) Homo Habilis (1) Homo Hierarchies (1) honor killing (1) Human Evolution (1) human rights (1) Incest prohibition (1) Independent Invention (1) indian anthropology (1) Indigenous People (1) Indus Valley Civilization (1) Intellectual Property Rights (1) Iroquois System of Kinship (1) J.C Frazer (1) jajmani system (1) Jean Baudrillard (1) Jean Dreze (1) Joint Family (1) Joking Relationship (1) Julian Steward (1) kin (1) Kin Behaviour (1) kindred (1) law (1) Leslie White (1) Levirate (1) Lucy Mair (1) magic science (1) Mandelbaum (1) Marcel Mauss (1) Marett (1) Margaret Mead (1) Marxism and Anthropology (1) Mendelian Principle (1) Michel Foucault (1) Microliths (1) Middle Palaeolithic Culture (1) Migration and tribal communities (1) modernization (1) multiculturalism (1) Mysore (1) myth (1) Nadel (1) Neanderthal Man (1) Non Unilineal or Cognatic Systems (1) Notes and Queries (1) Nuclear Family (1) Nuer (1) Organic evolution (2) origin of state (1) origins (1) Oscar Lewis (1) Paleo River (1) Parallel Cousin (1) Participatory Rapid Assessment (1) Patterns of Culture (1) Pedigree Analysis (1) Polyandry (1) Polygyny (1) Population Genetics (1) Pre-history (1) PreHarrapan settlements (1) primitive (1) profane (1) Proto- history (1) Purushartha (1) Race (2) racism (1) Radcliffe-Brown (1) Recombinant DNA Technology (1) Reflexivity (1) Reinventing Anthropology (1) Religion (2) Religion and science (1) religious beliefs (1) research (1) Restricted Exchange (1) Rhina (1) rig vedic society (1) Robert Redfield (1) Rules of Residence (1) Ruth Benedict (3) sacred (1) Sacred Complex (1) Sacrifice (1) San hunter-gatherers (1) sanction (1) Scheduled Areas (1) scope of anthropology (1) Secret Societies (1) sex-gender (1) Sir James George Frazer (1) Social Institutions (1) Social Network (1) Social-Psychological Perspectives (1) society (1) sorcery (1) Sororate (1) state (1) Status (1) Status of women in tribal society (1) Stebbins (1) stone age communities (1) stone tools (1) Style of Life (1) symbolic culture (1) Symbolism (1) Syncretism (1) Synthetic Perspectives (1) Taboo (1) Teknonymy (1) terraces (1) Textual Approach and Contextual Approach (1) The Golden Bough (1) Thomas Malthus (1) tobacco (1) Totem (1) Trade and Barter (1) Tradition (1) Transactionalism (1) Tribal Religion (1) Tribal Sub plan (1) tribe (1) Upper Palaeolithic (1) Upper Palaeolithic Period (1) urban revolution (1) Urbanization (1) witchcraft (1) world's population 2012 (1)

Popular Posts

Subscribe Now: bloglines

Subscribe in Bloglines

Top Education Sites
anthropology,anthropologyguide
Flipkart.com