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Why a theory of human nature cannot be based on the distinction between universality and variability: Lessons from anthropology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2010

Rita Astuti  and
Maurice Bloch
Rita Astuti
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom. [email protected]://www2.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/people/[email protected]://www2.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/people/bloch.aspx
Maurice Bloch
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom. [email protected]://www2.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/people/[email protected]://www2.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/people/bloch.aspx
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Abstract

We welcome the critical appraisal of the database used by the behavioral sciences, but we suggest that the authors' differentiation between variable and universal features is ill conceived and that their categorization of non-WEIRD populations is misleading. We propose a different approach to comparative research, which takes population variability seriously and recognizes the methodological difficulties it engenders.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 2-3 , June 2010 , pp. 83 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

Astuti, R. & Harris, P. L. (2008) Understanding mortality and the life of the ancestors in Madagascar. Cognitive Science 32:713–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Astuti, R., Solomon, G. E. A. & Carey, S. (2004) Constraints on conceptual development. A case study of the acquisition of folkbiological and folksociological knowledge in Madagascar. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 69, Serial No. 277; 69(3):vii–135.Google ScholarPubMed
Bloch, M. (2005) Where did anthropology go? Or the need for “human nature.” In: Essays on cultural transmission, ed. Bloch, M., pp. 1–19. Berg.Google Scholar