Ignoring Cultural Universals

This weekend I was thinking a fair amount about "cultural universals" (aka Human Universals). Those are behavioral elements, patterns, traits, or institution that exist across human cultures. Now, if you are still mired in the 20th century nature/nurture debate, on the nuture side, you might deny the existence of such. That is not wise, given the evidence. I dropped out of that debate though, as an adolescent when i decided to define behavior as a relationship between the phenotype, and an environment in a constant state of change.
But i digress.
In animal behavior study, it is common practice to assume that when a behavior is shared across a specie despite isolation and divergence, it is biologic in origin (not necessarily in expression), not learned. Of course, the details of the expression of the biologic element varies (cultures).
Ignoring these when trying to change behavior, is done only at ones peril, and does not lead to edification.
A relatively good list of human universals can be found at:
http://condor.depaul.edu/mfiddler/hyphen/humunivers.htm
For a very good listing, and discussion, i recommend chapter 29, Universals, Adaptation, Enculturation, and Culture in Konner, Melvin, The Evolution of Childhood, 713-727 Harvard Press (2010)
Also, if ya thinking about climate change do not forget something else that apparently is embedded in the wetware; Hyperbolic Discounting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbolic_discounting