Our Common Denominator

Christoph Antweiler is an anthropologist and Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany. He is a member of the Academia Europaea, London and serves on the advisory board of the Humboldt Forum, Berlin.

“Antweiler's is a quite meticulous and lucid study of human universals in the discipline of anthropology after more than a century of neglect in favor of the particularistic, relativist study of human cultures through the method of ethnography. His review is comprehensive and searching.” • Choice“Antweiler delivers a differentiated and well-organized overview of some previous, and many more recent, debates on universals within a range of anthropological sub-fields… what makes this book worth reading and consulting, beyond its merits as a good roadmap and overview through some parts of these debates, are its fair and accessible dialogical style; its clarity concerning basic concepts and methodological issues; and, last but not least, its respect for ethnography and for particular contexts. All of this is certainly helpful for anthropological reconsiderations and new explorations of universals.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI)“Antweiler’s special accomplishments are the dragonfly-eye view of “universal” and amalgamating consequences of both Darwinian and epigenetic modes of adaptation and evolution… The design-concept of the book accommodates linear and global reasoners alike. Tables, lists, and exposition are arranged to optimize utility. Systematic analytical methods are displayed with crystal clarity. In a nutshell, Antweiler succeeds. He gives persons a gyrocompass to muddle through mazes and conflicts in the post-truth era, namely Anthropocene society as we know it.” • International Social Science Review“…as a clarion call to expand our anthropological minds to include more cultural commonalities, as well as for greater intellectual exchange between not only anthropologists working in disparate areas but also anthropologists and practitioners of other disciplines, Antweiler’s endeavour succeeds skillfully.” • JASO“…represents a major contribution to the anthropological research on the contemporary issues and debates regarding universals or the commonalities among us. Berghahn press should be congratulated for producing such a work.” • Journal of International and Global Studies “An impressively exceptional work of seminal scholarship, Our Common Denominator: Human Universals Revisited is enhanced with the inclusion of figures, tables, an informative ten page introduction, a seventy-three page bibliography, and a twenty-six page index. Highly recommended and an extraordinary contribution to community and academic library, anthropology reference collections and supplemental studies lists.” • Midwest Book Review“Christoph Antweiler has achieved a great success. Anyone who has taken note of his previous work cannot be surprised by this: in his usual clear, precise and differentiated language, he turns to a topic which, in ethnology and international anthropology since the 1970s, has at best been a niche: the search for universals that people, if not as individuals, as collective cultural and social forms of society around the globe, which thus turn people into human beings.” • Paideuma“After many decades of one-sided emphasis on cultural differences in anthropology and related disciplines, we are badly in need of an examination like this that foregrounds what human beings have in common.” • Wilfried van Damme, Leiden University“The book clearly is a heroic achievement. It offers a valuable contribution to the filling of a large gap.” • EthnoScripts

• List of Tables    PrefaceIntroductionChapter 1. Humankind: Current Societal DebatesUniversal Postulates Everywhere!Popular Universality in Visual Media: “The Family of Man”Normative UniversalismChapter 2. A World of Cultures: Their Differences and LikenessesFinding Patterns in Diversity: George Peter Murdock and Donald Edward BrownUniversals as Subject Matter: Concept, Terms and MetaphorsUniversals do matter: The Relevance of Universals in General and for Cultural StudiesUniversals in Cultural Anthropology Today: the forgotten Half in the Science of HumanityChapter 3. Cultures and Human Nature: Human Beings are biologically CulturalThe Nexus of Intra-cultural Diversity and UniversalsHuman Nature and the Proper Image of Who We AreHomo sapiens: Uniqueness versus Special StatusChapter 4. Universals: Examples from Several RealmsQualifying RemarksNarration and Expressive CultureSocialityWorldview and Images of HumanityRituals and BeliefsCognition and KnowledgeLanguages and SpeakingBehavior and ExperienceGender, Sexuality and Social ReproductionChapter 5. Methods: Deduction, Case Studies and ComparisonFinding Potential Candidates and Deducing from TheoryCase Studies: Testing Postulated UniversalsConcepts beyond Cultural Bias?Inventories of UniversalsEvaluating Lists of Universals and Holistic Forms of RepresentationCross-cultural ComparisonCross-species ComparisonChapter 6. Taxonomy: The Forms, Levels and Depth of UniversalsLevels, Spheres and Time FrameSubstance and DepthDegree of UniversalityConditional Universals and other Specific FormsRelations between basic Anthropological OrientationsChapter 7. Toward Explanation: Why do Universals exist?Ten Pitfalls in Research and in Anti-universalismSystematics of Explanatory ApproachesCultural Contact: Universals through Cultural Transfer and DiffusionFunction, Convergence and Structural Implication: Emerging Universals through Real-Life CircumstancesEvolution: Universals Based on AdaptationComplex CausesChapter 8. Critical Positions: Arguments against UniversalismReification, Hidden Syllogisms and Implicit PrimitivityRelativist and Empirical CriticismsFundamental Criticism: Charges of Eurocentrism and HegemonyChapter 9. Synthesis: Human Universals and the Human SciencesBibliography     Index