Cultural Universals in Sociology: Definition & Examples

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  • 0:02 What Is a Cultural Universal?
  • 0:44 Family Values
  • 2:02 Cultural Views on God
  • 3:45 Lesson Summary
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Lesson Transcript
Instructor: Juli Yelnick

Juli has traveled the world engaging in cultural immersion experiences that bring her Master of Liberal Studies findings to light.

Learn how different actions and choices between two cultures can actually be accomplishing a similar goal under the surface. Learn about the universal constants that have guided human behavior and culture throughout history in this lesson.

What Is a Cultural Universal?

Regardless of time and place, humans exhibit similar basic behaviors related to the survival and proliferation of our species. Everyone needs to eat, drink, learn, grow, and bury loved ones. Although many of us assume that our thoughts and actions are new and unique, in the big picture of human history we are usually just dressing up old ideas and shoving them back on stage.

The visible manifestations are undeniably different from culture to culture, but the underlying values haven't changed much. Cultural universals are those guiding principles of human civilization that are so central to human identity that we can find them, in some form, in all societies - past and present - around the world.

Family Values

''Thou shalt not kill.'' While perhaps most famously found in the Old Testament of the Bible, this basic principle has been evident in all societies throughout human history. Cultural universals such as this one develop spontaneously in order to best support the propagation of the human race. The guiding principles, therefore, aim to organize a human population and provide a stable and secure environment in which the community can flourish. If individuals in the group are killing one another, then the goal of propagating the species is not being achieved. Thus, infanticide, patricide, and senseless murder in general are usually frowned upon around the world.

Similarly, ''it takes a village to raise a child'' rings as true now as it did two thousand years ago. An entire community should take an interest in establishing and maintaining a set of boundaries and rituals to guide youngsters through the coming of age process. While the manifestations of this principle certainly have variety, from ritual female circumcision in Kenya to Jivaro warriors taking their sons out into the Amazon rainforest for their first hallucinogenic hunting experience, the underlying cultural universal to preserve and pass on a group's traditions and values remains strong in each society.

Cultural Views on God

''Allah,'' ''God,'' ''Jehovah,'' ''Brahma'' - these words and many more represent the human desire to name the all-powerful being who is believed by many to have created the Earth and first humans. In many cultures, the focus is on one higher power; however, in many ancient (and some modern) societies people revere and concern themselves primarily with pleasing their own ancestors. As a cultural universal, human groups rely on a supernatural element to set and monitor the ethical behavior standards of a community.

Religious rituals take many forms, and a central element of human identity is the collection of customs associated with death and burial. When a human population loses a group member, the survivors do what they believe is required to prepare both the body and spirit for what comes next. Every human civilization in recorded history has left evidence of some sort of religious beliefs - most of these artifacts come from a burial ritual.

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