Donald Brown (anthropologist)

Donald E Brown
Nationality	American
Fields	Anthropology
Institutions	University of California
Known for	Human Universals

Donald E. Brown is an American professor of anthropology (emeritus). He worked at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is best known for his theoretical work regarding the existence, characteristics and relevance of universals of human nature. In his best known work, Human Universals, he says these universals, "comprise those features of culture, society, language, behavior, and psyche for which there are no known exceptions." He is quoted at length by Steven Pinker in an appendix to The Blank Slate, where Pinker cites some of the hundreds of universals listed by Brown. In area studies his doctoral research on the structure and history of Brunei was foundational.

Books

Brunei: The Structure and History of Bornean Malay Sultanate. Brunei Museum, 1970.

• Hierarchy, History, and Human Nature: The Social Origins of Historical Consciousness. University of Arizona Press, 1988.
• Human Universals. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991.

Articles

• 'Human Nature and History'. History and Theory 38 (1999): 138-157.
• 'Human Universals and their Implications'. In N. Roughley (ed.), Being humans: Anthropological Universality and Particularity in Transdisplinary Perspectives. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2000.
• 'Human Universals, Human Nature & Human Culture'. Daedalus 133 (2004): 4, 47.

Encyclopedia entries

• 'Human Universals'. In Robert A. Wilson and Frank C. Keil (eds). The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1999.

Reviews

• Christopher Boehm. 'Human Universals: Donald E. Brown'. American Anthropologist 94 (1992): 742-743.
• Walter J. Lonner. 'Human Universals: Donald E. Brown'. American Ethnologist 21 (1994): 920-921.

References

See also

curriculum vita:

http://don.chubrown.com/

External links

• List of Universals from the book.

Persondata
Name	Brown, Donald
Alternative names
Short description	Anthropology academic and author
Date of birth
Place of birth	United States of America
Date of death
Place of death