Cognitive Anthropology

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Cognitive Anthropology

• S4 Advanced Social Anthropology I
• Thought, Belief and Ethics
• Lecture 3
• Anthropology of Religion
• and
• Cognitive Science
• Jonathan Mair

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Major theories

• MCI ideas (Boyer)
• HADD ToMM (Guthrie, Barrett)
• Ritual Practice Hazard-Precaution System (Boyer
  and Liénard)
• Ritual Forms Hypothesis (MacCauley and Lawson)
• Divergent Modes Theory semantic and episodic
  memory (Whitehouse)

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Supernatural Beliefs - MCI

• Pascal Boyer
• Ideas of the supernatural are universal
• Esp. Anthropomorphism
• Why?
• Must be a cognitive explanation

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Supernatural Beliefs - MCI

• Intuitive Beliefs
• Conform to non-reflective beliefs
• Easy to understand
• Rich inferential potential
• No intrinsic salience

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Supernatural Beliefs - MCI

• Counter-Intuitive Beliefs
• Little or no inferential potential
• Hard to remember

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Supernatural Beliefs - MCI

• Minimally Counter-Intuitive Beliefs
• Salient
• Rich inferential potential
• Degrees of Counter-Intuitiveness
• Horse-sized dog
• Immortal dog

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HADD ToMM

• Justin Barrett
• Supernatural Agent Concepts very common
• Why?
• What is the cognitive explanation for this
  distribution?

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HADD ToMM

• (Hypersensitive) Agency Detection Device
• Must be adaptive to be hypersensitive
• People see agents everywhere
• MCI Supernatural agent concepts are reinforced
• HADD triggers ToMM

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HADD ToMM

• Theory of Mind Module
• Evolutionarily most important
• Agent concepts are
• Inferentially rich
• Relevant to human concerns
• (Mis)fortune/Justice

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HADD ToMM

• Theory of Mind Module
• Domain
• Agents
• Principles of recognition/assumptions
• Beliefs
• Motives
• Intentions
• Moral responsibility

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Evaluation

• Is this good?
• Is this good science?
• Rose and Rose (2000)
• Fodor (2001)
• Is this good anthropology?
• Laidlaw (2007)

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Overview

• The moral objection
• Racism/sexism?
• Will we turn out to be evil by nature?
• If cognition is determined by genes, what of
  moral responsibility?

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Overview

• The methodological argument
• Too much speculation
• Circularity
• Experimental evidence inconclusive

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Overview

• The relevance argument
• This is a plausible explanation
• It is not the only explanation
• It is of little interest in understanding
  religious traditions as traditions
• Laidlaw 2007