Sociology Plus
Cognitive Anthropology Definition
Cognitive anthropology is the academic study of culture that seeks to utilise the formal methods of logic and linguistics to characterise cultural fields and the minds formed within those cultures. It focuses specifically on examining how people’s cognitions, thoughts, reasonings, and judgements are intrinsically linked to their social activities.
Historical Shift
The focus of anthropology shifted significantly in the 1960s. Rather than tracking broad belief systems, such as religion, the discipline began concentrating on mundane or everyday classifications (taxonomies) relating to specific things, persons, and actions within particular cultural contexts. This shift reflected a broader trend in the social sciences that prioritised understanding what individuals ‘know and think’ as central to social organisation.
Methodological Approach
Cognitive anthropology proposes that anthropology can employ formal methods—as opposed to approaches modelled on empiricist natural science or the often uncontrolled interpretation associated with the humanities—to analyse cultural phenomena. The aim of this methodology is to derive formal or quasi-formal statements regarding the rules and systemic alternatives, typically applied to small fields within a specific culture.
Influences
The development of cognitive anthropology has been profoundly influenced by the ethnosciences, particularly in their examination of categorisations of nature found in non-Western thought, as well as by the principles established in linguistics.