I thought I would add a comment to the others already here to say that in the ten years or so since the reviews above, this book is still relevant. While not an academic in the field, I'm fairly sure I'm right in saying that human universals have now re-surfaced as a major question in psychology with the recent paper by Henrich et al. on the incredible extent to which all modern (western) sociology and psychology is based on "WEIRD" (western, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic)subjects - the vast majority of them 1st or 2nd yr American phsychology undergrads. Read the two together and you have enough questions for several PhDs.... enjoy.