The Scientific Fundamentalist

A Look at the Hard Truths About Human Nature

Satoshi Kanazawa is an evolutionary psychologist at LSE and the coauthor (with the late Alan S. Miller) of Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters. See full bio

May 11, 2008, Evolutionary Psychology

Comments on "There is only one human culture"

There is only one human culture

By Satoshi Kanazawa on May 11, 2008 in The Scientific Fundamentalist

People often speak of culture in the plural (“cultures”) because they believe that there are many different cultures in the world. At one level, this is of course true; the American culture is different from the Chinese culture, both of which are different from the Egyptian culture, and so on. However, all the cultural differences are on the surface; deep down, at the most fundamental level, all human cultures are essentially the same. Read More

Well done

Submitted by Becky on May 16, 2008 - 8:15am.

Great blog. We need more evidence that celebrates our sameness and that the shared human experience is only unique in that it is uniquely human.

Excellent post. You hit the

Submitted by Chris on May 24, 2008 - 5:47am.

Excellent post. You hit the nail on the head, and everyone should read this.

For anyone intrigued by the post, read The Adapted Mind, by John Tooby and Leda Cosmides (the book introducing the term Standard Social Science Model mentioned above)

either one culture or no culture

Submitted by Nadia on December 30, 2008 - 4:30am.

Dear Mr. Kanazawa,

thank you very much for the post. If you agree then, there is only one culture, is it then possible to identify with this one culture?

Say for example, one has (perhaps due to the process of globalisation, or whatever the reason) lost his sense of cultural identity. He has no culture that he can call his own, and the one inherited by the parents has no meaning ot his parents or to himself, has travelled enough and learned enough about the world to be able identity and empathise with all the cultures in the world.

What then can happen? How does this person manifest in his life without access to his own cultural identity?? The same can be seen in language. One knows a meaning and understands that there are infinite possibilities, infinite words coming from infinite languages, which are then able to communicate that meaning.

Which language then does one choose?? there is no answer. So one could think one culture is the same as no culture. But of course I am not sure. What is your opinion?
thank you

nadia