Universal_Human_Characteristics_Throughout_the_World

Universal Human Characteristics throughout the World Although there were many different people throughout the world, the cultures were, in some ways, the same. Cultures shared many characteristics, such as: song and dance, the act of collecting food on a large scale and then preserving it, the act of hunting, and the domestication of plants and animals. Song and dance, an activity that brought cultures together, was practiced in many cultures as an expression of pride, happiness, sorrow, appreciation, praise, challenge, childhood games, initiation, or war. Emotions were also expressed through the art of song and dance. Another major characteristic that many cultures began to share almost sixteen thousand years ago was when a few communities began to preserve food. Some societies, located along the pacific and arctic coasts of North America, began to fish for mainly salmon and whale on a large scale and eventually the societies began to preserve the fish in large quantities. The famous Magdalenian cave art also illustrated the practice of early humans hunting and eventually preserving migratory reindeer. In being able to gather food at large quantities and later preserving it allowed communities to begin settling. Before the knowledge or the technology was developed to collect food on a large scale, a whole village following and hunting a herd was believed to be the way of life. Hunting was just another characteristic that many cultures shared. The final characteristic that many cultures shared was the domestication of plants and animals. After societies began to preserve food, they also began to make their own food, by either growing it or raising it. While some regions like China began to grow rice, millet, and soybeans, and raise pigs, chickens, and water buffalo, others were growing plants like taro, potatoes, maize and coconut, and raising animals like llamas, alpacas, donkeys, and horses. Although the societies were all over the world, they did share many characteristics like how they got there food, what they did with it after they got it, or the act of song and dance that brought some societies closer together.