Abstract

Since the politicization of anthropology in the 1970s, most anthropologists have been reluctant to approach the topic of universals—that is, phenomena that occur regularly in all known human societies. In this volume, Christoph Antweiler reasserts the importance of these cross-cultural commonalities for anthropological research and for life and co-existence beyond the academy. The question presented here is how anthropology can help us approach humanity in its entirety, understanding the world less as a globe, with an emphasis on differences, but as a planet, from a vantage point open to commonalities.

FULLY REVISED AND COMPREHENSIVELY UPDATED FROM THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION

“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’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

“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

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.