Toward a cultural theory of human rights

Although the term 'human rights' is traditionally taken to refer to fundame ntal rights enshrined in formal documents, certain basic 'normative rights' , such as turn-taking, are central to everyday social life. This paper move s toward a cultural theory of rights, proposing that certain fundamental re lations, referred to as 'primitive social relations', are inherent in human social life and relative to the local political orientation can appear as rights or duties. Second, normative rights/duties are maintained through ev olutionary developed social skills that are integral to local cultures. Mod ernization has been associated with a nullification or 'side-stepping' of e volutionary developed defense mechanisms protecting normative rights. Third , legislated rights/duties are a recent arrival in human cultural evolution , and they arose out of the new social relations inherent to large and comp lex modern societies.