Slide 1 Slide 2 Slide 3 - Western University

Slide 1

Anthropology and Ethnoscience

Cross Cultural Cognition

Slide 2 Lucien Levy-Bruhl - The

Primitive MindEarly anthropological thinking was

“evolutionary” in nature. “Advanced” Western civilizations - height of

reasoning“Primitive” other cultures - inferior copies of

the advanced Western mind.

Slide 3 Idea challenged by Levy- Bruhl. “Let us then no longer… want to reduce their

mental activity to an inferior form of our own.”(Cazeneuve, 1972)

Primitive people do not reason in an inferior way, just differently.

Argued that primitive minds employ a “pre logic”different from our own. This logic must be understood on it’s own terms.

Slide 4 Two major characteristics of primitive thought. 1) Law of participation: Primitive peoples see beings, objects, and external

phenomena as both identical with and different than, themselves.

Example: Trumai - Tribe in North of Brazil

Refer to themselves as aquatic animals Mean that they are fish, and other aquatic animals, plus human.

Slide 5 Two major characteristics of primitive thought. 2) Belief in Mystical Forces Primitive individuals can emit and receive

mystical forces, properties, and qualities. Felt as outside themselves.

Example: Newborn child may suffer consequences of

everything father eats, says, does, etc.

Primitive mind does not give up ideas because of contradictions.

Slide 6 Major idea: Individuals from different cultures may think in different ways.

Thus, difficult to extrapolate from one population to another.

Necessary to study the mental activities of each group on its own.

The primitive mind: dominated by emotion and affect.Little concern with logic.Tolerant of contradictions and mystical forces.

Slide 7 Then, changed his mind and stated that primitives do not exhibit a different form of thought.

“I started by positing a primitive mentality different from ours… let us give up explaining participation by something peculiar to the human mind…There is not a primitive mentality distinguishable from the other.”

(Cazeneuve, 1972)

Slide 8 New position: Differences between primitive and civilized

cultures is a matter of degree. Willing to entertain the possibility that there is no

fundamental difference whatsoever. Might be scientific thought that is unusual

(Western thought)In Western cultures, structure of the mind is

“blurred” by scientific thinking, whereas in primitive peoples it is not.

Concludes that: “The structure of the human mind is the same everywhere.”

Slide 9 Debate not new, has gone on since the discovery of exotic populations.

Wonder how they relate to ourselves.

Much interest focussed on morals and values.

Of particular interest are the thought processes of these populations.

Are their “logics” the same as our own, or are they different in some fundamental way?

Slide 10 Early methodology:Focus mostly on textual information.1) Read the myths of that society to gain some

understanding of their thought processes. Or2) Read transcripts of conversations with

preliterate individuals, draw conclusions about the kinds of thought contained in them.

Problems?

Slide 11 Later methods:

Case studies: Go into the field to examine the thought processes of individuals.

Problem? Leaves a great deal of discretion at the hands of

the individual researcher. IdiosyncraticHave worked to develop more objective methods. (Ethnoscience)

Slide 12 New methods seem to bypass some of the a great deal about what is critical to thinking processes.

Major themes: Should anthropology re-embrace the methods of in-depth case study?

Should anthropology align itself more closely with the humanities than the hard sciences?

Should anthropology adopt the methods of experimental cognitive science?

Slide 13 Differences between populations has been studied since classical times - Herodotus.

Speculations about differences in behavior between one society and another - and why they occur.

Sometimes traced existence of peoples back to biblical events: dispersion of Noah’s sons

Offspring of Cain.

Slide 14 Often assumed that exotic peoples represent some sort of degeneration of “pure” humans.

Examples: American IndiansArabian Nomadsetc. etc. etc.

Did not descend directly from Adam or Abraham, so not pure.

Slide 15 Renaissance Europe

Characterized by travel and interest in scholarship.Debate continued.

Degeneracy?OrCompare early Europeans and predecessors of

“civilized” man, stressing similarities. Are contemporary “savages” then just at earlier

stage of development?

Slide 16 “Europe and America…settled the matter by

placing their own nations on one end of the social series, and the savage tribes at the other, arranging the rest of mankind between these limits according as they correspond more closely to savage or cultural life.”

(Hodgen, 1964)

Slide 17 Should science attempt to understand the differences?

Charles Louis MontesquieuStudied laws, customs, morals from different parts

of the world. Posited explanations like: Population Density Subsistence patternsGeographical Barriers State of CommerceDegree of isolation ClimateTechnological development Soil

Slide 18 Thought that natural surrounds, climate more

important in savage societies than in developed.

Sought a functional explanation of such practices as cannibalism, slavery, idol worship.

Slide 19 Enlightenment Ideas

Belief in rationality and equality.

If rationality is the standard then:Western mind seems more advanced that that of

the “savage”

If equality is the standard then:Slavery, superiority of one group over another

anachronistic.

Slide 20 Enlightenment IdeasEgalitarian IdeaProblem for religion of the time. All things being equal, why do some cultures are

monotheistic while others are polytheistic.

Bishop Whately - Savages could not be helped and were best thought of as a separate species.

Charles Darwin - Problematic, if evolution is true, then humans cannot be thought of as different from the rest of the natural world.

Slide 21 Edward Tylor

Tylor has been credited with initiating a more systematic way of thinking about other cultural groups.

Major impetus in initiating the scientific study of society and culture.

Worked at the same time as Wilhelm Wundt

Slide 22 Toured America and Mexico in 1860’s.

Became familiar with cultural differences.

Attacked the idea that religious beliefs were inspired by divine intervention of some kind.

Took a rationalist perspective. Human culture and religion are products of a

natural law-governed evolution of mental capacities.

Slide 23 How then, did he define culture?

“That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”

Critical point: capacities are acquired, not inherited, rather obtained by group membership.

Slide 24 Idea that these capacities are plastic: could be changed if individual were raised in a different group, or if that group changed its practices.

Major emphasis then, on learning.

Thus, behaviour does not depend upon inherited characters, or position along the scala naturae

Learned behaviours can also be changed.Darwinian Ideas?

Slide 25 Organized cultures in a linear fashion.

Savagery…..Barbarism….Civilization

But…had egalitarian ideals and held that persons could progress in this scheme.

Individuals at higher levels still harboured traces of their cultural past.

Called it his scheme of survivals.

Slide 26 Survivals: Individuals possess customs, beliefs, habits, that date back to earlier times and are maintained despite the fact that they are of little utility in modern times.

Example:

“God bless you” after sneezing.”lost original meaning but is used ritualistically

when someone sneezes.

Believed all customs could be made sense of if their origins were understood.

Slide 27 Avoided metaphysical explanations for practices, rather, looked for statistical relations among different institutions or practices.

Developed the method of adhesion. In which he attempted to determine which practices go together.

Prepared lists of practices carried out by a given culture.

Looked for practices that tended to occur together.

Slide 28 Teknonymy: The naming of parents after children.

For example, if a set of parent’s give birth to a child named “Robert” they would be referred to as “Mother-of-Robert” and “Father-of-Robert” respectively.

Common in a number of cultures including:Arabic Korean American Indians

Yanomano tribe of South America

Slide 29 Tylor was able to determine which other cultural practices were associated with teknonymy using his method of adhesion.

Living in house of mother’s relatives.

Related to practices of avoidance - individuals with tense relations avoid one another.

Method was a major contribution to the field.

Slide 30 Major Ideas: Primitive peoples are not just a pale version of

modern man.

Culture exists in all peoples, in various forms.

All groups harbour vestiges of the past, and all behaviours can be justified if seen in the proper context.

Showed that the... “rude savage was possibly an English gentleman.”

Slide 31 Franz BoasGerman Physicist: Went to the arctic to study the

colour of sea water. Did Geographical work near Baffin Island, and

became intrigued by the native peoples and their language and culture.

A major contributor to modern anthropology. Reconciled the “scientific” view of the outsider,

and the “subjective” view of the individual or culture.

Slide 32 Carried out first long term studies of the natives of the Pacific Northwest.

Major Ideas:Opposed linear evolution of culture. Cultures best studied in terms of their own needs,

pressures and practices. Not in relation to other cultures which might be more or less “advanced”

Document what is done, and why. Not how advanced or simple it might be, or where it came from.

Slide 33 Major Ideas:Emphasized the importance of language and

linguistics for anthropology. Developed methods for notating languages,

encouraged documentation of Native languages.Saw languages as “unique creations”, which

needed to be understood as an “organized totality.”

Languages could be convergent or divergent. Underlined importance of language in all human

activity.

Slide 34 Major Ideas:Did not believe that a culture could be restricted by

its language - disagreed with Whorf-Sapir hypothesis.

Believed that thought influenced language rather than the opposite.

All languages are sufficiently complex to carry out the various kinds of human thought.

Slide 35 Major Ideas - Primitive Mentality:Difference between mental proceeses of primitive

peoples and ourselves is:Categories used by primitive peoples developed in

a crude manner. Our knowledge is systematized and rationalized. Because philosophical ideas have been worked out

systematically over time, and are accessible to all.

Indians and Inuit could appreciate abstract language and thought, just not part of their environment.

Slide 36 Major Ideas - Primitive Mentality:Advocated view that primitive and modern peoples

possess the same “cognitive potential.”Primitive and modern not dichotomous. Could not evaluate one group as better or worse

than another, just different.Counteracted all forms of racism - stated that there

was no scientific basis for labelling one group as inferior to another.

Slide 37 Bronislaw Malinowski

Functionalist approach.Within a society, customs, material objects,

ideas, beliefs, exist to serve certain goals.Utilitarian idea, should look at the utility of

these aspects of cultures. Not interested in historical factors or mental

phenomena. Can be thought of as akin to a behaviourist

approach.

Slide 38 Developed careful field methods and used them to describe native life.

Provided detailed descriptions of the practices within a given community and provided suggestions as to how they fit together.

Thus, provided detailed ethnographies.

Slide 39 Edward Sapir

Sapir was a major figure in the field of linguistics.

Famous for the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Was interested in the study of Indian

Languages. Believed that all languages were equally

complex, and that languages develop independently of environmental determinants.

Slide 40 Also interested in the nature of mentality in different cultures.

In combination with grad student Benjamin Lee Whorf, came to believe that language used by a group is a major determinant of belief structures and ways of thinking of that population.

“It powerfully conditions all our thinking about social problems and processes…It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an identical means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection

Slide 41 …No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same worlds with different labels attached.”

Thus, also believed that language could shape social reality.

Helps establish the special nature of linguistics within anthropology.

Slide 42 The Structuralist View

Certain properties of the human mind determines the way languages operate.

For example, many things are perceived by humans as polarities (hot- cold, light-dark)

This should be reflected in language. (should be many binary distinctions).

Like phonemes…consist of distinctive features, and features are either present or absent.

Grammar and meaning…can also be seen in binary terms.

Slide 43 Features exist within an organized system.Relations between features are primary.

Thus, structuralists attempt to determine the systematic and structured relationship among various terms.

Slide 44 Claude Levi-Strauss

Argued that key aspects of culture are best thought of in linguistic terms, and can be approached using structural linguistic methods.

Looked at kinship structures - a major topic in anthropological literature.

Slide 45 Appropriate to his methods because:Have data regarding the system of relations

between terms (father, son)Also system of relations between attitudes.

(intimate, distant)

Tested out his notions on the idea of the avunculate.

Maternal uncle represents familial authority.Exerts certain rights over his nephew.But still maintains a joking relationship with the

nephew.

Slide 46 There is a correlation between these attitudes and the male’s attitude toward his father.

1) In groups where father and son are familiar -uncle and nephew have relationship of mutual respect.

2) In groups where father represents authority, uncle is treated with familiarity.

In order to understand this structure, must take into account all relevant terms, and the relationship between them all.

Slide 47 Relevant terms in this case are relationships between:

brother and sisterhusband and wifefather and son mother’s brother and sisters son

Linguists - examines phonological relations across many different languages in order to determine proper set of distinctive features.

Levi-Strauss - looks at avunculate in many cultures in order to determine operative factors.

Slide 48 Postulated the following structural law which highlights the critical features of this set of relationships.

The relation between maternal uncle and nephew (intimate or formal) is to the relation of between brother and sister

as the relation between father and son is to that

between husband and wife. If one pair of relations is known it is possible to

figure the other pair out.

Slide 49 Supports his law by examples, and states that the key is figuring out the appropriate level of analysis.

Thus, even in different systems of descent, he argues that there is always the same relationship between the four pairs of oppositions required to construct the kinship system.

Has figured out the unit of analysis.

Slide 50 In general then:1) Promotes use of linguistic methods and logical

analysis. 2) Promotes interest in social organization.

And also...3) Interest in the human mind.

Felt anthropologists had ignored the ways in which the mind obtains, classifies, and interprets information.

Has spent the remainder of his career in search of the human mind.

Slide 51 How to study the mind?Studies classification of objects and elements.Ways in which myths are created and understood.

Based on classificatory systems observed in different cultures, and myths related various Indian tribes.

But also relies on his own intuitions.

Whose mind is being discovered? His or theirs?Does it matter?

Slide 52 Conclusions:Fundamental feature of all minds is to classify. Primitive persons classify like civilized persons. But: Among primitive persons - concreteClassify according to overt perceptual and

sensory properties. Not underlying structures or properties.

Thus, categories are different in native and western cultures.

Roughly the same in an analytical sense.

Slide 53 Conclusions:

Constrained in the kinds of combinations we can make, and features we can use in opposition.

Interesting in light of sensory physiology and cognitive psychology (Miller’s magical number seven)

Slide 54 Myth - Window to the Mind?

Studied myth-making extensively. Levi-Strauss’ most extensive foray into human

cognition.

Devised a methodological approach for the structural study of myth.

Break myth down into component parts or unitsAssemble all the units that refer to the same theme,

or make the same point.

Slide 55 Oedipus Rex

• Example: Oedipus Rex

Slide 56 Oedipus is king of Thebes, and a great crisis has

fallen upon his country.

It is thought that this misfortune is due to the fact that the previous king Laius was murdered, and that his murderer has never been punished.

Oedipus decides to set things right.

Slide 57 OEDIPUS:

Well, I will start afresh and once again

Make dark things clear. Right worthy the concern

Of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead;

I also, as is meet, will lend my aid

To avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god.

Not for some far-off kinsman, but myself,

Shall I expel this poison in the blood;

For whoso slew that king might have a mind

To strike me too with his assassin hand.

Therefore in righting him I serve myself.

Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs,

Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither

The Theban commons. With the god's good help

Success is sure; 'tis ruin if we fail.

Slide 58 Wasted thus by death on death

All our city perisheth.

Corpses spread infection round;

None to tend or mourn is found.

Wailing on the altar stair

Wives and grandams rend the air--

Long-drawn moans and piercing cries

Bent with prayers and litanies.

Golden child of Zeus, O hear

Let thine angel face appear!

Slide 59 And grant that Ares whose hot breath I feel,

Though without targe or steel

He stalks, whose voice is as the battle shout,

May turn in sudden rout,

To the unharboured Thracian waters sped,

Or Amphitrite's bed.

For what night leaves undone,

Smit by the morrow's sun

Perisheth. Father Zeus, whose hand

Doth wield the lightning brand,

Slay him beneath thy levin bold, we pray,

Slay him, O slay!

Slide 60 Asks a priest to tell him who is responsible for the death of Laius, but the seer refuses to tell him.

He does tell him that he is unaware of his own lineage, and that he will be driven out of Thebes.

Angered, Oedipus casts the priest out.

OEDIPUSMust I endure this fellow's insolence?A murrain on thee! Get thee hence! BegoneAvaunt! and never cross my threshold more.TEIRESIASI ne'er had come hadst thou not bidden me.

Slide 61

Before leaving, the priest makes the following (disturbing!) prediction:

Slide 62 TEIRESIAS

I go, but first will tell thee why I came.

Thy frown I dread not, for thou canst not harm me.

Hear then: this man whom thou hast sought to arrest

With threats and warrants this long while, the wretch

Who murdered Laius--that man is here.

He passes for an alien in the land

But soon shall prove a Theban, native born.

And yet his fortune brings him little joy;

For blind of seeing, clad in beggar's weeds,For purple robes, and leaning on his staff,

To a strange land he soon shall grope his way.

And of the children, inmates of his home,

He shall be proved the brother and the sire,

Of her who bare him son and husband both,

Co-partner, and assassin of his sire.

Slide 63 Oedipus suspects that his brother in law Creon is

responsible for the death of Laius, and is also plotting HIS demise.

Creon denies this and tells Oedipus that HE slew Laius.

Their argument is broken up by Jocasta, Oedipus’ wife and queen.

She tries to reassure Oedipus by telling the following story.

Slide 64 JOCASTA: Then thou mayest ease thy conscience on that score.

Listen and I'll convince thee that no man

Hath scot or lot in the prophetic art.

Here is the proof in brief. An oracle

Once came to Laius (I will not say

'Twas from the Delphic god himself, but from

His ministers) declaring he was doomed

To perish by the hand of his own son,

A child that should be born to him by me.

Now Laius--so at least report affirmed--

Was murdered on a day by highwaymen,

No natives, at a spot where three roads meet.

Slide 65 As for the child, it was but three days old,

When Laius, its ankles pierced and pinned

Together, gave it to be cast away

By others on the trackless mountain side.

So then Apollo brought it not to pass

The child should be his father's murderer,

Or the dread terror find accomplishment,

And Laius be slain by his own son.

Such was the prophet's horoscope. O king,

Regard it not. Whate'er the god deems fit

To search, himself unaided will reveal.

Slide 66

This story disturbs Oedipus even more, because he realizes that there are similarities between the death of Laius, and an experience of his own.

Slide 67 OEDIPUS: And thou shalt not be frustrate of thy wish.

Now my imaginings have gone so far.

Who has a higher claim that thou to hear

My tale of dire adventures? Listen then.

My sire was Polybus of Corinth, and

My mother Merope, a Dorian;

And I was held the foremost citizen,

Till a strange thing befell me, strange indeed,

Yet scarce deserving all the heat it stirred.

A roisterer at some banquet, flown with wine,

Shouted "Thou art not true son of thy sire."

It irked me, but I stomached for the nonce

The insult; on the morrow I sought out

My mother and my sire and questioned them.

Slide 68 They were indignant at the random slur

Cast on my parentage and did their best

To comfort me, but still the venomed barb

Rankled, for still the scandal spread and grew.

So privily without their leave I went

To Delphi, and Apollo sent me back

Baulked of the knowledge that I came to seek.

But other grievous things he prophesied,

Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire;

To wit I should defile my mother's bed

And raise up seed too loathsome to behold,

And slay the father from whose loins I sprang.

Then, lady,--thou shalt hear the very truth--

Slide 69 As I drew near the triple-branching roads,

A herald met me and a man who sat

In a car drawn by colts--as in thy tale--

The man in front and the old man himself

Threatened to thrust me rudely from the path,

Then jostled by the charioteer in wrath

I struck him, and the old man, seeing this,

Watched till I passed and from his car brought down

Full on my head the double-pointed goad.

Yet was I quits with him and more; one stroke

Of my good staff sufficed to fling him clean

Out of the chariot seat and laid him prone.

Slide 70 And so I slew them every one. But if

Betwixt this stranger there was aught in common

With Laius, who more miserable than I,

What mortal could you find more god-abhorred?

Wretch whom no sojourner, no citizen

May harbor or address, whom all are bound

To harry from their homes. And this same curse

Was laid on me, and laid by none but me.

Yea with these hands all gory I pollute

The bed of him I slew. Say, am I vile?

Am I not utterly unclean, a wretch

Doomed to be banished, and in banishment

Forgo the sight of all my dearest ones,

And never tread again my native earth;

Slide 71 Or else to wed my mother and slay my sire,

Polybus, who begat me and upreared?

If one should say, this is the handiwork

Of some inhuman power, who could blame

His judgment? But, ye pure and awful gods,

Forbid, forbid that I should see that day!

May I be blotted out from living men

Ere such a plague spot set on me its brand!

Slide 72 Oedipus also finds out that a member of the king’s retinue survived the attack.

Oedipus wishes to see him at once to clear the matter up.

But first, a messenger appears, heralding the death of Oedipus’ father Polybus.

Oedipus is somewhat relieved, as an oracle had told him he would slay his father.

The messenger, however, tells him that Polybus was not his blood father.

Slide 73 OEDIPUS: What say'st thou? was not Polybus my sire?

MESSENGER: As much thy sire as I am, and no more.

OEDIPUS: My sire no more to me than one who is naught?

MESSENGER: Since I begat thee not, no more did he.

OEDIPUS: What reason had he then to call me son?

MESSENGER : Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift.

OEDIPUS: Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.

MESSENGER: A childless man till then, he warmed to thee.

Slide 74 OEDIPUS: A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?

MESSENGER: I found thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens.

OEDIPUS: What led thee to explore those upland glades?

MESSENGER: My business was to tend the mountain flocks.

OEDIPUS: A vagrant shepherd journeying for hire?

MESSENGER: True, but thy savior in that hour, my son.

OEDIPUS: My savior? from what harm? what ailed me then?

Slide 75 MESSENGER: Those ankle joints are evidence enow.

OEDIPUS:Ah, why remind me of that ancient sore?

MESSENGER: I loosed the pin that riveted thy feet.

OEDIPUS: Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore. OEDIPUS: Who did it? I adjure thee, tell me who

Say, was it father, mother?

MESSENGER: I know not.

The man from whom I had thee may know more.

OEDIPUS: What, did another find me, not thyself?

MESSENGER: Not I; another shepherd gave thee me.

OEDIPUS: Who was he? Would'st thou know again the man?

MESSENGER: He passed indeed for one of Laius' house.

OEDIPUS: The king who ruled the country long ago?

MESSENGER: The same: he was a herdsman of the king.

Slide 76

Oedipus realizes that the the herdsman who gave him to this messenger, and the survivor of the king’s murder are one and the same man.

Oedipus sends for him, but Jocasta warns:

Slide 77 JOCASTA: Yet humor me, I pray thee; do not this.

OEDIPUS: I cannot; I must probe this matter home.

JOCASTA: 'Tis for thy sake I advise thee for the best.

OEDIPUS: I grow impatient of this best advice. JOCASTA:Ah mayst thou ne'er discover who thou art!

OEDIPUS: Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon woman To glory in her pride of ancestry.

JOCASTA: O woe is thee, poor wretch! With that last word I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore.

Slide 78

But Oedipus remains firm in his quest.

Slide 79 OEDIPUS: Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds, To learn my lineage, be it ne'er so low.

It may be she with all a woman's pride

Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I Who rank myself as Fortune's favorite child,

The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed. She is my mother and the changing moons

My brethren, and with them I wax and wane. Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth?

Nothing can make me other than I am.

Slide 80

The herdsman comes, and Oedipus asks him where he obtained the foundling child.

Slide 81 MESSENGER: No wonder, master. But I will revive

His blunted memories. Sure he can recall

What time together both we drove our flocks,

He two, I one, on the Cithaeron range,

For three long summers; I his mate from spring

Till rose Arcturus; then in winter time

I led mine home, he his to Laius' folds.

Did these things happen as I say, or no?

HERDSMAN: 'Tis long ago, but all thou say'st is true.

MESSENGER: Well, thou mast then remember giving me

A child to rear as my own foster-son?

HERDSMAN: Why dost thou ask this question? What of that?

MESSENGER: Friend, he that stands before thee was that child.

HERDSMAN: A plague upon thee! Hold thy wanton tongue!

Slide 82

HERDSMAN: Nay, I confessed I gave it long ago.

OEDIPUS: Whence came it? was it thine, or given to thee?

HERDSMAN: I had it from another, 'twas not mine.

OEDIPUS: From whom of these our townsmen, and what house?

HERDSMAN: Forbear for God's sake, master, ask no more.

OEDIPUS: If I must question thee again, thou'rt lost.

HERDSMAN: Well then--it was a child of Laius' house.

OEDIPUS: Slave-born or one of Laius' own race?

HERDSMAN: Ah me!

I stand upon the perilous edge of speech.

OEDIPUS: Didst give this man the child of whom he asks?

HERDSMAN: I did; and would that I had died that day!

OEDIPUS: And die thou shalt unless thou tell the truth.

HERDSMAN: But, if I tell it, I am doubly lost.

OEDIPUS: The knave methinks will still prevaricate.

Slide 83 OEDIPUS: And I of hearing, but I still must hear.

HERDSMAN: Know then the child was by repute his own,

But she within, thy consort best could tell.

OEDIPUS: What! she, she gave it thee?

HERDSMAN: 'Tis so, my king.

OEDIPUS: With what intent?

HERDSMAN: To make away with it.

OEDIPUS: What, she its mother.

HERDSMAN: Fearing a dread weird.

OEDIPUS: What weird?

HERDSMAN: 'Twas told that he should slay his sire.

OEDIPUS: What didst thou give it then to this old man?

Slide 84 HERDSMAN

Through pity, master, for the babe. I thought

He'd take it to the country whence he came;

But he preserved it for the worst of woes.

For if thou art in sooth what this man saith,

God pity thee! thou wast to misery born.

OEDIPUS

Ah me! ah me! all brought to pass, all true!

O light, may I behold thee nevermore!

I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed,

A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed!

Slide 85

In horror, Oedipus puts out his own eyes.

Queen Jocasta commits suicide.

Slide 86 Set of themes:

Overvaluing of Blood Relations:

Undervaluing of Blood Relations:

Monsters Being Slain:

Some Unusual Names having to do with Difficulties in Walking:

Slide 87 Seems to be willing to take any myth fragment deconstruct it.

Then determine the major themes and messages within the myth.

Relation to the mind? (Gardner, 1986)Simple empirical categories present in myths:small, sound, silence, darkness, rawness,

cookedness.These are the conceptual tools for approaching

abstract concerns common to the human condition.

Slide 88 Such as:relationship between nature and culturestutaus of incest taboorelation between sexesimportance of social arrangements

These ideas are then stated in stories that are emotional in nature, or involve social conflict.

No myth can be fully understood except in relation to all the other myths in a certain group (e.g. Greek Mythology)

Slide 89 And:

Relationship between phonemic features that comprise a linguistic system is analogous to the relationship between thematic forms and mythic systems.

Levi-Strauss argues then that myths represent the mind in pure form.

Provides evidence that there is a common logic present in all human thought.

Slide 90 “ The kind of logic in mythical thought is as

rigorous as that of modern science and…the difference lies, not in the quality of the intellectual process, but in the nature of things to which it it applied…man has always been thinking equally well; the improvement lies, not in an alleged progress of man’s mind, but in the discovery of new areas to which it may apply its unchanged and unchanging powers.” (Cited by Gardner, 1986)

Slide 91 Ethnoscience

Owes a debt to Levi-Strauss.

Can be thought of as the study of the thought systems of individuals in various cultures.

Slide 92 Ethnoscience“It is an attempt to understand the organizing principles underlying their behavior. It is assumed that each people has a unique system for perceiving and organizing material phenomena - things, events, behaviors, and emotions…The object of the study is not these material phenomena themselves, but the way they are organized in the minds of men. Cultures then are not material phenomena: they are cognitive organizations of material phenomena.”

(Tyler, 1969; cited by Gardner, 1986)

Slide 93 Examples From Cognitive Anthropology

Environmental contributions to visual perception.

Marshall, Campbell, & Herskovits

Studied susceptibility of various groups to established visual illusions.

How much does environment contribute to visual perception?

Slide 94 The Muller-Lyer Illusion

Slide 95 Found that:

European and American individuals were more susceptible to the illusion than non-western samples.

Why might this be:

Experience of this illusion reflects life in a “carpentered” environment, which is experienced mainly by these cultures.

Slide 96

Slide 97 The Horizontal - Vertical Illusion

Slide 98 The Horizontal - Vertical IllusionNatural Scenes

Slide 99 Non westerners were more susceptible to this illusion.

Individuals living in equatorial terrain were more likely to fall prey to the illusion.

Perhaps because they spend more time during development looking at flat and wide spaces.

Even though these illusions are not cognitively penetrable, a cultural difference is show.

Does this tell us anything about the structure of the mind in different cultures?

Slide 100 Cross Cultural Studies of Colour Naming

Conducted study with Dani tribe of New Guinea.

Administered short and long term memory tests using colour chips as the stimuli.

Found that individuals remembered colours more accurately when chips were “focal” colours, rather than “nonfocal ones.

More salient “reds” were remembered better than less typical “reds” (e.g. pinkish hues)

Slide 101 Cross Cultural Studies of Colour Naming

Interesting in that:

Nothing in Dani language specifies focal colours other than “light” and “dark”

But they still remember good perceptual exemplars in the absence of words for those exemplars.

Challenges the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis.

Slide 102 Cross Cultural Studies of Colour Naming

Berlin and Kay (1969) did similar research.

Found that various cultures had different numbers of names for colours, but that the number of names corresponded to similar perceptual categories.

Slide 103 Different Naming Systems:

2 Name System: Divide spectrum between white and black.

3 Name System: white, black, red4 Name System: white, black, red, green or yellow...11 Name System: white, black, red , green, yellow,

blue, brown, pink, purple, orange, gray

Slide 104 Thus:

Each system with a given number of colour names, has names which refer to a common set of colours.

Suggests that there are universals by which the world is perceived and classified.

Those universals reflect underlying principles of the human mind.