All tagged Ethnography

Cognitive Anthropology: A Primer, Part II

Cognitive anthropology is the study of the mind in its cultural and cross-cultural context. Once again, we can turn to Edwin Hutchins (1995) and his groundbreaking book in the literature for a greater definition: “Human cognition in its natural habitat, that is – to naturally occurring, culturally constituted human activity.” It is a somewhat overlooked subfield of cognitive science more broadly, and yet it proposes a great many questions that can benefit our understanding of thought, the brain, and culture intermingle to create our experience of reality. Over the years, there have been a number of influential publications that seek to define, situate, and advance this reading of cognition.