ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSIGHITS INTO HUMAN BEHAVIOR : Culture: Universality vs. Variability

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Having begun with the concept of culture it seems appropriate to summarize with a statement about society. If humans live by cultural norms, they also live in a society. And this living in society dictates what must be a part of the individual's and group's culture.
Society may be defined as the community of persons who share a culture and feel themselves in some way to be a unit. Though the terms culture and society are often used interchangeably, they refer to different aspects: culture is the way of acting, the bony of tradition, the learned behavior of a society; a society is the body of personnel, who interact with one another in a regular manner and who share a culture that sets this mode of interaction.
Every society operates within a set of conditions, determined basically by the physical environment in which it exists and the technical knowledge it has at its command with which to cope with the environment. This ecological setting places further demands on the society; that is, places limitations on the way in which the society operates. The cultural setting influences human behavior. Where a tribe live shunting and food gathering in an extremely poor environment, foodsharing institutions are necessary. Among the Andaman Islanders there is such a strong emphasis on generosity that no man would fail to give away the large and better part of the dugong he has killed. Among the Arunta of Australia there is no value placed upon generosity but, customary to their law, a person is simply expected to give certain portions of a successful hunt to particular relatives. On the other hand, societies with large populations can ignore their starving citizens if it is within their ethical to do so.
The Eskimos, the Bushmen of the Kalhari, the native Australians, or
others who live in exceedingly bleak environments where it is necessary to be constantly on the move in search of food, practice infanticide . In the past there were no alternatives.
It is not fair to limit such examples to primitive circumstances.
Where political states have come into being, they have certain general features which appear to be necessary for the maintenance of a political system. Among preliterate people, and often among people with writing, nations are given legitimacy by religious institutions and the belief that the ruler has a special relation to the gods which legitimatizes that rule. The ruler also has an army to enforce decisions. Only after political systems are firmly established does it appear that they can forego the former of these organizational devices, while apparently they can never entirely escape the latter. In modern industrial society we find the additional need for elaborate training institutions to develop and maintain the complex equipment of its highly technical economy.
Despite the different demands of various economic conditions and social circumstances, despite the great variety of cultural forms that are found throughout the world, there is nevertheless a common core of cultural uniformity. To what degree human behavior must be viewed asa product of basic human physiological and psychological needs; to what degree they are the product of the fact of social existence and the requirements of social life, and to what degree they stem from the common core of human history, is a matter not yet fully known. They do however, suggest the basic unity of humankind.