Download lecture files:

[1] Development of cognitive anthropology…epidemiology of representations - handout 

[2] Development of cognitive anthropology… epidemiology of representations - PP presentation 

The last lecture looked at how cognitive anthropologists distinguish themselves from other anthropologists…what they promise is a materialist, rigorous science which can take account of context-rich comparative material in a way that makes cooperation with cognate disciplines possible.Today’s lecture looked at the three main ways in which cognitive anthropologists have tried to do this: (1) ethnooscience - the application of the methodology of structural linguistics to cultural knowledge, mainly to hierarchically organised semantic domains such as kinship, colour terms, zoological and botanical taxonomies [key names: Goodenough, Lounsbury, Frake, Conklin, Berlin, Kay]; (2) schema theory/cultural models - developed out of psychological ideas about the role of prototypes in concept formation (Rosch 1977) - schemas are simplified models of the world that allow us to process information and make choices quickly and flexibly - can be semantic or image-based…focuses on cultural variability of cognition [see edited volume by Holland and Quinn]; (3) in reaction to emerging trends in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology that emphasise the universal aspects of human cognition, contemporary cognitive anthropology mostly tries to explain why certain kinds of ideas persist, in terms of the interaction of universal cognitive mechanisms and ecological condtions. This last methodology was first proposed by Dan Sperber, under the rubric ‘epidemiology of representations’ - we spent the last part of the lecture on his version of this method, a good (but very repetitive) statement of which can be found in his Explaining Culture (1996).