Anthropological Contributions to Cognitive Science

Anthropology was a founding member of cognitive science(Bender et al., 2010; Gardner, 1985), sharing with othercognitive disciplines a deep interest in thinking and behav-ior. With its unique expertise in the cultural content, con-text, and constitution of cognition, it would still be essentialto any comprehensive endeavor to explore the human mind(Bloch, 2012), but rather has turned into cognitive science’s“missing discipline” (Boden, 2006), thus leaving importantquestions unanswered or even unasked. Given that substan-tial shares of knowledge are implicit and that cognition issituated, distributed, embodied, and grounded in variousother ways, anthropological approaches provide privilegedaccess to investigation: for arriving at reasonable hypothe-ses, ensuring ecological validity, and even for coming upwith new research questions and paradigms (Astuti &Bloch, 2012; Hutchins, 2010; Nersessian, 2006).In line with recent calls for rapprochement in Topics inCognitive Science (Bender et al., 2012; Beller & Bender,2015), our symposium brings together scholars that repre-sent different branches of contemporary anthropology withdistinct perspectives—including ‘traditional’ social anthro-pology, cognitive anthropology and ethno-linguistics, cogni-tive ecology, evolutionary anthropology, and archaeology—to present what they consider to be indispensable contribu-tions to cognitive science.With our selection of authors, we hope to demonstrate thevalue of anthropological approaches for cognitive science aswell as the potential benefits of cross-disciplinary collabora-tion. Cognitive archaeologist Overmann discusses a theo-retical perspective on how mind, behavior, and materialartifacts interact to shape human cognition. Combining theirexpertise in linguistics and evolutionary anthropology, Ráczand Jordan investigate the design principles of kinship sys-tems as near-universal conceptual tools. With his back-ground in (ethno-)linguistics and cognitive anthropology,Le Guen uses Yucatec Maya sign languages to illustrate theimportance of cultural practices for shaping cognitive be-havior. Based on Hutchins’ cognitive ecology approach,Solberg speaks to questions at the intersection of anthropol-ogy and philosophy of science by illuminating the culturalframework of science production in a biology lab. And so-cial anthropologist Astuti concludes by taking a bird’s eyeview on how efforts to understand the human mind cruciallybenefit from acknowledging its historical origins and fromtaking the specific sociocultural contexts into consideration.Based on work some of which is published in high-qualityjournals (such as Science, Nature, PNAS, BBS, TiCS, Cur-rent Anthropology, or Cognition), these participants willoffer invaluable contributions to a more diverse, more inclu-sive, and hence more comprehensive cognitive science

Cognitive anthropology

This is an appropriate moment to review the state of the art in cognitive anthropology, construed broadly as the comparative study of human cognition in its linguistic and cultural context. In reaction to the dominance of universalism in the 1970s and '80s, there have recently been a number of reappraisals of the relation between language and cognition, and the field of cognitive anthropology is flourishing in several new directions in both America and Europe. This is partly due to a renewal and re-evaluation of approaches to the question of linguistic relativity associated with Whorf, and partly to the inspiration of modern developments in cognitive science. This review briefly sketches the history of cognitive anthropology and surveys current research on both sides of the Atlantic. The focus is on assessing current directions, considering in particular, by way of illustration, recent work in cultural models and on spatial language and cognition. The review concludes with an assessment of how cognitive anthropology could contribute directly both to the broader project of cognitive science and to the anthropological study of how cultural ideas and practices relate to structures and processes of human cognition

Cognitive science: from multidisciplinarity to interdisciplinarity

Cognitive science is a network of interrelated scientific disciplines engaged in researching human cognition and its brain mechanisms. The birth of cognitive science has been the result of numerous integrated processes. Cognitive science is made up of experimental psychology cognition, philosophy consciousness, neuroscience, cognitive anthropology, linguistics, computer science and artificial intelligence. In recent years, a number of other research areas have been added to the body of cognitive science. Among researchers there have been discussions about whether cognitive science is a separate research area or it consists of a series of specialized areas. In fact, the point at issue is whether cognitive science is still a multidisciplinary project or already an interdisciplinary one. P. Thagard believes that cognitive science has reached the level of interdisciplinarity and explains the advances in this area through the metaphor of “trading zones”. The success elements of cognitive science are: fruitful unification of scientific interests of cognitive science founders; organizational structure of the scientific community – universities, where  a special interdisciplinary intellectual environment has been created; a large number of joint research projects supported by governments and business; integrated use of scientific methods and fundamental ideas. D. Sperber and J. Miller prefer to talk not about a unified cognitive science but cognitive sciences, i.e., the commonwealth of sciences working together on the study of a single object - human cognition, however, the extent of their interactive communication is still small. Thus, we should speak about multidisciplinarity  rather than genuine interdisciplinarity of the joint research of separate sciences

The Cultural Constitution of Cognition: Taking the Anthropological Perspective

To what extent is cognition affected by culture? And how might cognitive science profit from an intensified collaboration with anthropology in exploring this issue? In order to answer these questions, we will first give a brief description of different perspectives on cognition, one that prevails in most cognitive sciences – particularly in cognitive psychology – and one in anthropology. Three basic assumptions of cognitive science regarding the separability of content and process, the context-independence of processing, and the culture-independence of processing will then be discussed. We argue that these assumptions need to be questioned and scrutinized cross-culturally. A thorough examination of these issues would profit considerably from collaboration with anthropologists, not only by enabling deeper insight into the cultures under scrutiny, but also by synergistic effects that would allow for a more comprehensive understanding of human cognition

Durkheimian anthropology and religion: going in and out of each other’s bodies

This is a reprint of Bloch, Maurice. 2007. “Durkheimian anthropology and religion: Going in and out of each other's bodies.” In Religion, anthropology, and cognitive science, edited by Harvey Whitehouse and James Laidlaw, 63–88. Ritual studies monograph series. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press

Psychology is – and should be – central to cognitive science

Abstract: Cognitive science is typically defined as the multidisciplinary study of mind, with the disciplines involved usually listed as philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. Furthermore, these six “core disciplines” are generally regarded as having equal status vis-à-vis cognitive science. In contrast to the latter position, I argue that psychology has a special status here: it is central to cognitive science in a way that none of the other five disciplines is. I support this argument via both theoretical and empirical considerations.Keywords: Psychology; Cognitive Science; Interdisciplinarity/Multidisciplinarity  La psicologia è – e dovrebbe essere – al centro della scienza cognitivaRiassunto: La scienza cognitiva viene definita comunemente come indagine multidisciplinare sulla mente e tra le discipline che vi sono coinvolte vengono solitamente indicate la filosofia, la psicologia, l’intelligenza artificiale, la neuroscienza, la linguistica e l’antropologia. Queste sei “discipline fondamentali” sono generalmente considerate come aventi pari dignità nell’ambito della scienza cognitiva. A dispetto di quest’ultima posizione sosterrò, invece, che alla psicologia vada riconosciuto uno status speciale: la sua importanza per la scienza cognitiva è tale da non poter essere eguagliata da nessuna delle altre cinque discipline. A supporto di questa posizione porterò alcune riflessioni di natura teoretica ed empirica.Parole chiave: Psicologia; Scienza cognitiva; Interdisciplinarità/Multidisciplinarit

A brief introduction to the guidance theory of representation

Recent trends in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science can be fruitfully characterized as part of the ongoing attempt to come to grips with the very idea of homo sapiens--an intelligent, evolved, biological agent--and its signature contribution is the emergence of a philosophical anthropology which, contra Descartes and his thinking thing, instead puts doing at the center of human being. Applying this agency-oriented line of thinking to the problem of representation, this paper introduces the Guidance Theory, according to which the content and intentionality of representations can be accounted for in terms of the way they provide guidance for action. We offer a brief account of the motivation for the theory, and a formal characterization

The Science Behind Learning: Practical Applications of Curiosity, Sociality, and Emotion in Communication Center Consultations

How humans learn is a topic explored by many disciplines.  Eyler (2018) synthesized research from diverse fields such as developmental psychology, anthropology, and cognitive neuroscience to identify themes important for understanding the science behind learning. Three of these principles have important relevance for center work: curiosity, sociality, and emotion. This paper explores practical strategies, based on these three principles, that consultants in communication centers can use to enhance learning and better assist students.Keywords: communication centers, consulting, science of learning, curiosity, sociality, emotio

Dependencies in language: On the causal ontology of linguistic systems

Dependency is a fundamental concept in the analysis of linguistic systems. The many if-then statements offered in typology and grammar-writing imply a causally real notion of dependency that is central to the claim being made—usually with reference to widely varying timescales and types of processes. But despite the importance of the concept of dependency in our work, its nature is seldom defined or made explicit. This book brings together experts on language, representing descriptive linguistics, language typology, functional/cognitive linguistics, cognitive science, research on gesture and other semiotic systems, developmental psychology, psycholinguistics, and linguistic anthropology to address the following question: What kinds of dependencies exist among language-related systems, and how do we define and explain them in natural, causal terms

Dependencies in language: On the causal ontology of linguistic systems

Dependency is a fundamental concept in the analysis of linguistic systems. The many if-then statements offered in typology and grammar-writing imply a causally real notion of dependency that is central to the claim being made—usually with reference to widely varying timescales and types of processes. But despite the importance of the concept of dependency in our work, its nature is seldom defined or made explicit. This book brings together experts on language, representing descriptive linguistics, language typology, functional/cognitive linguistics, cognitive science, research on gesture and other semiotic systems, developmental psychology, psycholinguistics, and linguistic anthropology to address the following question: What kinds of dependencies exist among language-related systems, and how do we define and explain them in natural, causal terms