{"id":8868,"date":"2019-05-22T16:12:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/psychic_unity_of_mankind\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T16:12:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:12:23","slug":"psychic_unity_of_mankind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/psychic_unity_of_mankind\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychic unity of mankind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The belief or doctrine&nbsp;that all human beings share a similar mental makeup and that similarity between cultures is evidence of similar causative agents. &nbsp;What constitutes such agents has been a source of controversy in anthropology (broadly speaking it amounts to biological commonalities versus&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/historyplex.com\/cultural-diffusion-meaning-types-examples\" data-editable-link=\"https:\/\/historyplex.com\/cultural-diffusion-meaning-types-examples?target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cultural diffusion<\/a>. &nbsp;While cultures might evolve at different speeds, they are destined to move through the same &#8216;stages&#8217;. &nbsp;The doctrine&nbsp;itself is generally accepted in contemporary anthropology, but no longer plays a substantive role in theory building. &nbsp;Its historical roots date back at least to the ancient Greeks, but found its expression in anthropology through the writings of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/todayinsci.com\/B\/Bastian_Adolf\/BastianAdolf.htm\" data-editable-link=\"https:\/\/todayinsci.com\/B\/Bastian_Adolf\/BastianAdolf.htm?target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adolf Bastian<\/a>&nbsp;(1826-1905), the father of German anthropology. &nbsp;It was taken up by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biography.com\/people\/franz-boas-9216786\" data-editable-link=\"https:\/\/www.biography.com\/people\/franz-boas-9216786?target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Frans Boas&nbsp;<\/a>(1858-1942), the father of American anthropology and in the UK by&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/web.prm.ox.ac.uk\/sma\/index.php\/articles\/article-index\/335-edward-burnett-tylor-1832-1917.html\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/web.prm.ox.ac.uk\/sma\/index.php\/articles\/article-index\/335-edward-burnett-tylor-1832-1917.html?target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Edward Burnett Tylor&nbsp;<\/a>(1832-1917), the father of British anthropology.&nbsp;&nbsp;.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"anthropological_veto\">Anthropological veto<\/a>, <a href=\"anthropology\">Anthropology<\/a>, <a href=\"cultural_evolution\">Cultural evolution<\/a>, <a href=\"emic-etic_distinction\">Emic-etic distinction<\/a>, <a href=\"evolutionary_psychology\">Evolutionary psychology<\/a>, <a href=\"relativism_-or_cultural_relativism-\">Relativism (or cultural relativism)<\/a>, <a href=\"universalism\">Universalism<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The belief or doctrine&nbsp;that all human beings share a similar mental makeup and that similarity between cultures is evidence of similar causative agents. &nbsp;What constitutes such agents has been a source of controversy in anthropology (broadly speaking it amounts to biological commonalities versus&nbsp;cultural diffusion. &nbsp;While cultures might evolve at different speeds, they are destined to &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/psychic_unity_of_mankind\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Psychic unity of mankind&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-8868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-glossary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}