Cultural history is the struggle between similarity and difference.

Evidence

Similarity, as fact or as tendency, is no less important than difference. In the most varied forms, both are the great principles of all external and internal development. In fact, the cultural history of mankind can be conceived as the history of the struggles and conciliatory attempts between the two. For the actions of the individual, his difference from others is of far greater interest than is his similarity with them. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 1812

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the polarity (similarity vs. difference) as twin principles framing all cultural development.
• XREF: connects to: Similar environments and technologies produce divergent cultural systems. — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 9