Cultural Universals 1

Education, Marriage, and Religion

The Study of Cultural Universals

Ryan Rice

Forsyth Tech Community College

Cultural Universals 2

Have you ever wondered how your culture relates to cultures in other countries? Well as

many differences as there are, between the thousands of nations in the world, they all have many

similarities. These similarities include regions such as education, marriage, religion, and many

more. Anthropologist, George Murdock coined a name for these cultural traits, Cultural

Universals. Cultural Universals are a cultural pattern extant in every known society.

(Dictionary.com)

Education is a huge example of a cultural universal. Although there are many different

levels of education in each country, all cultures contain a sense of organized learning.

Unfortunately in certain cultures, based on their economic status, they cant afford the learning

supplies or even teachers to educate their citizens. Education is very important to all cultures

because it helps shape the intelligence of each culture and helps increase peoples skills in jobs

that help move forward in those cultures. Education gives the members of each culture intellect

and when the more intelligence a culture has, the further, and faster, they can improve their skills

and strategies such as technology or industrialism.

Marriage is a ceremony also common in all cultures. All cultures contain an official

ceremonial wedding between spouses. Some cultures allow marriage after a certain age, some

have the parents chose a spouse for their children, and there are many other rituals in other

cultures. Marriage leads to families, which practice the rituals which helps strengthen the
Cultural Universals 3

culture. Marriage unfortunately has become a shorter commitment throughout all cultures over

the years. Married couples seem to struggle the most with communication and loyalty.

However marriage is very important to the flow of culture. Each culture can almost be

described by the style of their weddings. Marriage gives culture a sense of balance as it brings

together men and women and not to mention, is very important in the life, and raising of the

offspring.

Another important cultural universal is religion. Religion has so much affect on all

cultures because not only does it provide the moral codes by which they live, it has been the

basis of many ceremonies, practices, and even wars. (Home Teaching) Religion gives culture

hope, faith, and pride. It also gives the members of each culture a sense of routine. Rather

people go to church every Sunday, Saturday, Wednesday night, or even if you have scheduled

prayer times each day, or if you pray on your own time, every religious culture contains routine.

This is why religion is so important to the affect of culture. There are so many religions

throughout all cultures, each with their own church services, rituals, prayer styles, and even

relates back to style of marriage ceremonies. Religion is one of the oldest cultural universals.

There are many other traits of culture that exist in all cultures. These cultural universals

not only help shape each and every culture, but also the entire world. Culture is a beautiful thing

and it gives a different texture to the many nations of this world. However the amazing thing

about cultural universals is that they point out the similarities of all those cultures. They create a

certain bond between the world. So just remember that no matter how different someones

culture is from yours, they are a lot more like you than you think.
Cultural Universals 4

Citations:

cultural universal. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved October 5, 2017 from

Dictionary.com website http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cultural-universal

Home Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future. (2010). Retrieved October 08,
2017, from http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_c/mod10.html
Marriage Customs from Around the World. (n.d.). Retrieved October 08, 2017, from
https://www.littlechapel.com/marriage-customs-from-around-the-world.html