
Human Universals (2002) - jelliclesfarm
https://condor.depaul.edu/~mfiddler/hyphen/humunivers.htm
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dooglius
Context:
[https://libgen.is/scimag/10.1162%2F0011526042365645](https://libgen.is/scimag/10.1162%2F0011526042365645)

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acqq
Or a Wikipedia summary:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Universals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Universals)

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pyuser583
“overestimating objectivity of thought”

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tlb
It's a weird mix of human universals and animal universals. For instance,
"abstraction in speech and thought" is human, but "males more aggressive" and
"females do more direct childcare" are true for most animals. But as a list of
animal universals it's very incomplete -- "hunger" isn't listed, for example.

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dntbnmpls
Human universals means the traits shared by humans across societies, cultures,
etc. It's not trying to differentiate humans and animals. It's trying to show
the commonality amongst humans.

> "females do more direct childcare" are true for most animals.

Also this isn't an animal universal. By a large margin, most animals (
male/female ) don't raise their young or even birth their young - fish,
insects, etc are animals too.

> But as a list of animal universals it's very incomplete -- "hunger" isn't
> listed, for example.

Because it isn't a list of animal universals.

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tlb
Hunger is certainly a human universal. People exhibit typical behavior
patterns when they are hungry. So I think this wants to be a list of human
universals over other animals.

While not all animals specialize child rearing and aggression, most mammals
and all primates do. So it’s still unclear to me what this is a list of.

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toasterlovin
> So it’s still unclear to me what this is a list of.

The context behind the list is that huge swaths of the academy believe that
humans are born as blank slates and culture is purely a result of
socialization. Hunger isn’t on the list because even the blank slatists
believe that all humans experience hunger, so there’s no need to point it out.
But plenty of people believe that child rearing arrangements are merely an
accident of history, so pointing out that there are child rearing patterns
that are universal across cultures which have no plausible way of influencing
each other is a strong argument against that explanation.

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dr_dshiv
Doesn't mention masturbation. Is that because of Catholics?

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scottlocklin
I'm guessing because wanking is not actually a human universal. Shocking as it
may seem to modern Western (WEIRD[1]) urbanites.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology#WEIRD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology#WEIRD)

