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Countless divisions threaten to separate humans from one another based on superficial differences. These include race, sex, sexual orientation, location, religion, and other factors which are either an inevitable product of biology or a culturally constructed trait. Problems arise all over the world because people fail to recognize that humanity is united by more things than those which threaten to divide us. In short, Laura Bohannon’s belief that “Human beings are pretty much the same the whole world over” is basically true.
Biological and evolutionary adaptations make humans very similar, despite thousands of miles in between them and the distribution of human populations in environments all over the world. Marjorie Shostak points out that all people experience the same range of human emotions and have the same emotional needs as others. Human growth from the neonatal stage to adulthood has the same basic characteristics of learning and development across cultures.
Furthermore, in almost every culture, sexual desires and basic instincts are recognized and restricted by laws. Specifically, there are rules prohibiting incest and outlines of inappropriate behavior in every society, whether or not they agree on the details. Some form of religion or beliefs system is established whenever people encounter questions about the nature of the world that they cannot explain with provable facts. The presence of communication and culture, however varied, is also a human universal. When people gather together in a society, they find ways to convey their thoughts and intentions with verbal and nonverbal symbols. With the development of a characteristic community, cultures develop with distinct language, art, religion, and social systems. These social systems often include hierarchies, by which people organize and rank the individuals or groups in their societies. These are basic universals, and can be found in nearly every human culture in the world.
Differences arise between humans in areas such as culture and specific environmental adaptations. What is considered beautiful in one culture (small feet in China, many beads in Africa, male daintiness in Wajabe culture) may be ugly in another. Nonverbal forms of communication also serve to distinguish one culture from another. For example, in Western societies, a smile indicates happiness or friendship, but in Asia it may be interpreted as a sign of mischievousness. Greetings differ, such as a bow versus a handshake, and it is important to be sensitive to such cultural differences in order to avoid offending someone with a different cultural background. Different beliefs, religions, rituals, values, and ways of life create drastic differences between people across the world. Multiple marriages would not be acceptable in American culture, which also tends to stress the importance of the wedding ceremony, whereas polygamy is common in societies such as the !Kung of Africa. Likewise, experimentation with sex as a child would be outrageous in Western society, but it is accepted in the !Kung tribe. Another example is the importance of Chinese table manners, particularly the mixing of all dishes together, common plates for everyone, and other specific traditions regarding meal-time. Table manners, especially in Chinese culture, are very sensitive and can convey to a host many important things about the guest, whether one realizes it or not. Although there are differences in humans and cultures across the world, people are fundamentally the same as members of the human race.
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