Reference no: EM13918481

Cultural Universals' Effect on Humanism

When we identify the cultural universals of the people that have a greater impact on our existence it gives us an understanding and a greater appreciation for the value of our being. Not saying that I support ethnocentrism (Nowak & Laird, Introduction: What is the Anthropological Approach, 2010), but by allowing an equal view of the combined opinions of each culture will present a bigger picture of humanism. Some cultures just tend to stand out more than others causing us to pay closer attention to all that it has to offer to human nature. As the text points out, "Grasping the fullest range of human culture will inevitably lead to universally valid knowledge of what it means to be a cultural-bearing human (Nowak & Laird, Introduction: What is the Anthropological Approach, 2010)."

Relevance of Discovering Universals

It is important to look deep into the consideration of cultural relativism when observing a group to grasp the value of that culture when discovering universals. We have to have an open mind in order to understand the particular behavior that is displayed and why the things that make up that culture are relevant to their being and our being as a whole. Universals help us compare and contrast different levels of human culture and behavior from one extreme to the next in order to find the medium that connects them all together (Nowak & Laird, Five Characteristics Of Culture, 2010)