Cognitive Anthropology 3: Cognitive Anthropology of Religion
This week's lecture looked at the ways in which cognitive anthropologists have tried to explain the distribution and content of religious ideas in terms of human cognition. I ran briefly through the main theories, and focused on two: MCIs (minimally counterintuitive ideas) as proposed by Pascal Boyer, and the combination of Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device and the Theory of Mind Module proposed by cognitive anthropologists such as Stuart Guthrie and Justin Barrett.
After looking at some of the main criticisms of cognitive anthropology, especially Laidlaw's point that cognitive explanations are simply not relevant, I introduced 'adis' a spiritual fluid from Inner Mongolia, and considered the ways in which seeing it as an intuitive concept might affect ethnographic questions and descriptions.
Next week Anthropology of Belief...
| File | Description | File size |
|---|---|---|
 Lecture 3 - Handout | Cognitive Anthropology 3: Cognitive Anthropology of Religion | 82 Kb |
| Lecture 3 - Presentation | Cognitive Anthropology 3: Cognitive Anthropology of Religion | 4152 Kb |