A Companion to Cognitive Anthropology

by David B. Kronenfeld (Editor), Giovanni Bennardo (Editor), Victor C. de Munck (Editor), Michael D. Fischer (Editor)

Overview

This new companion traces the development of cognitive anthropology from its beginnings in the late 1950s to the present, and evaluates future directions of research in the field. In twenty-nine articles from leading anthropologists, there is an overview of cognitive and cultural structures, insights into how cognition works in everyday life and interacts with culture, and examples of contemporary research. The companion is essential for anyone interested in the questions of how culture shapes cognitive processes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781444394924
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	02/25/2011
Series:	Wiley Blackwell Companions to Anthropology
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	624
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

David B. Kronenfeld is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Riverside.

Giovanni Bennardo is Presidential Research Professor at Northern Illinois University.

Victor C. de Munck is Associate Professor of Anthropology at State University New York, New Paltz.

Michael D. Fischer is Professor of Anthropological Sciences at the University of Kent.

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Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors viii

Acknowledgments xvi

Introduction 1

Part I History of Cognitive Anthropology; Nature and Types of Cultural Knowledge Structures 9

1 A History of Cognitive Anthropology 11
B. G. Blount

2 The History of the Cultural Models School Reconsidered: A Paradigm Shift in Cognitive Anthropology 30
Naomi Quinn

3 The Cognitive Context of Cognitive Anthropology 47
Jürg Wassmann, Christian Kluge, and Dominik Albrecht

4 The Limits of the Habitual: Shifting Paradigms for Language and Thought 61
Janet Dixon Keller

5 Types of Collective Representations: Cognition, Mental Architecture, and Cultural Knowledge 82
Giovanni Bennardo and David B. Kronenfeld

6 Personal Knowledge and Collective Representations 102
John B. Gatewood

Part II Methodologies 115

7 How to Collect Data that Warrant Analysis 117
W. Penn Handwerker

8 Data, Method, and Interpretation in Cognitive Anthropology 131
James Boster

9 Multi-Item Scales and Cognitive Ethnography 153
Kateryna Maltseva and Roy D’Andrade

10 Consensus Analysis 171
Stephen P. Borgatti and Daniel S. Halgin

11 Narrative, Mind, and Culture 191
Benjamin N. Colby

12 Simulation (and Modeling) 210
Michael Fischer and David B. Kronenfeld

Part III Cognitive Structures of Cultural Domains 227

13 Mathematical Representation of Cultural Constructs 229
Dwight Read

14 Kinship Theory and Cognitive Theory in Anthropology 254
F. K. L. Chit Hlaing (F. K. Lehman)

15 Numerical Cognition and Ethnomathematics 270
Andrea Bender and Sieghard Beller

16 “Indigenous Knowledge” and the Understanding of Cultural Cognition: The Contribution of Studies of Environmental Knowledge Systems 290
Roy Ellen

17 Emotions, Motivation, and Behavior in Cognitive Anthropology 314
E. N. Anderson

18 Social Networks, Cognition, and Culture 331
Douglas R. White

Part IV Cognitive Anthropology and Other Disciplines 355

19 Culture and Cognition: The Role of Cognitive Anthropology in Anthropology and the Cognitive Sciences 357
Norbert Ross and Douglas L. Medin

20 Cultural Models, Power, and Hegemony 376
Halvard Vike

21 Cognitive Anthropology through a Gendered Lens 393
Carol C. Mukhopadhyay

22 Sociality in Cognitive and Sociocultural Anthropologies: The Relationships Aren’t Just Additive 413 Lynn Thomas

23 Cognitive Anthropology and Education: Foundational Models of Self and Cultural Models of Teaching and Learning in Japan and the United States 430
Hidetada Shimizu

24 Archaeological Approaches to Cognitive Evolution 450
Miriam Noël Haidle

Part V Some Examples of Contemporary Research 469

25 The Distributed Cognition Model of Mind 471
Brian Hazlehurst

26 A Foundational Cultural Model in Polynesia: Monarchy, Democracy, and the Architecture of the Mind 489
Giovanni Bennardo

27 Cognitive Approaches to the Study of Romantic Love: Semantic, Cross-Cultural, and as a Process 513
Victor C. de Munck

28 Trouble as Part of Everyday Life: Cognitive and Sociocultural Processes in Avoiding and Responding to Illness 531
Linda C. Garro

29 Using Consensus Analysis to Investigate Cultural Models of Alzheimer’s Disease 548
Robert W. Schrauf and Madelyn Iris

Afterword: One Cognitive View of Culture 569
David B. Kronenfeld

Index 584

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The sheer vibrancy of modern cognitive anthropology is brilliantly reflected in this Companion. The development of the field since the early days of ethnoscience is as refreshing as it is remarkable." 
Brent Berlin, University of Georgia

 

"A Companion to Cognitive Anthropology is an outstanding collection of papers covering a range of topics that accurately reflect current trends and major emphases in anthropologically informed studies of cognition."
Steven Tyler, Rice University

 

"A rich treasure-house of science-based anthropology."
Margaret Boden, University of Sussex

 

"Read this good companion to find out what cultural anthropology contributes to the cognitive science agenda.  Are there scientific methods for discovering what people know and how they think by virtue of ethnic ancestry and cultural inheritance?  Read these essays and find out."
Richard A. Shweder, University of Chicago

Editorial Reviews

In elucidating tensions between individual and collective, between idiosyncratic and commonplace, between the social, cultural, and environmental, and between the evolutionary and situational, cognitive anthropology emerges as a significant component of studying human being, and this volume provides a useful anthology and snapshot.”  (Journal of the Royal Astronomical Institute, 1 May 2013)

“The fact that reading through these essays got me thinking about the amazing range of research areas that could now be considered part of "cognitive anthropology" is a testament both to the provocative value of this volume and the vitality of the sub-discipline of cognitive anthropology it is helping to re-imagine.”  (Ethos, 1 February 2013)

 

From the Publisher