A cultural universal (also called an anthropological universal or human universal) is an element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all known
human cultures worldwide. Taken together, the whole body of cultural universals is known as the
human condition.
Evolutionary psychologists hold that behaviors or traits that occur universally in all cultures are good candidates for evolutionary adaptations.
[Schacter, Daniel L, Daniel Wegner and Daniel Gilbert. 2007. ''Psychology''. Worth Publishers. pp. 26–27] Some anthropological and sociological theorists that take a
cultural relativist
Cultural relativism is the idea that a person's beliefs and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture. Proponents of cultural relativism also tend to argue that the norms and values of one culture should not be evaluated ...
perspective may deny the existence of cultural universals: the extent to which these universals are "cultural" in the narrow sense, or in fact biologically inherited
behavior
Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as wel ...
is an issue of "
nature versus nurture
Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology and society about the balance between two competing factors which determine fate: genetics (nature) and environment (nurture). The alliterative expression "nature and nurture" in English h ...
". Prominent scholars on the topic include
Emile Durkheim,
George Murdock,
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...
, and
Donald Brown.
Donald Brown's list in ''Human Universals''
In his book ''
Human Universals'' (1991), Donald Brown defines human universals as comprising "those features of culture, society, language, behavior, and psyche for w