Cognitive Anthropology

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Cognitive Anthropology

• A Qualitative Research Tradition

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Qualitative Research Traditions

• Characterized by
• assumptions about human nature and society
• focus of the study
• methodology

Jacob, E. (1987). Qualitative Research
Traditions A Review, Review of Educational
Research, 57(1), 1-50.
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Example Traditions

• Ecological Psychology
• Holistic Ethnography
• Ethnography of Communication
• Symbolic Interactionism
• Cognitive Anthropology
• Ethnoscience
• New Ethnography

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Cognitive Anthropology

• Developed by Goodenough and Frake
• Based heavily on linguistics
• Study culture
• Mentalistic Terms
• Cultural categories
• Organizing principles

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Assumptions

• Culture
• Cognitive organizations of material phenomena
• Groups have unique system for perceiving and
  organizing the world
• Cultural knowledge reflected in language
• Semantics
• Organized
• Related

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Implications

• Do not study behavior
• Linguistics
• Relationships between words

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Focus

• Description of organization of cognitive system
• 2 questions
• What material phenomena are significant for the
  people of some culture?
• How do they organize these phenomena?

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Implications

• Compare individual culture
• Then compare across cultures
• Focus on Organizing principles
• Not on substantive aspects
• No theory testing

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Methodology

• Description using participants categories
• Cyclical
• Identify symbols and relationships
• Hypothesis testing

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More Methodology

• Recording verbatim
• Natural settings
• Open-ended, descriptive questions
• Controlled eliciting
• Formal analysis

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Formal Analysis

• Internal consistency
• Completeness
• Form
• Types
• domain analysis
• taxonomic analysis
• componential analysis
• theme analysis

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Applications

• Mentalistic culture
• Few done in educational settings
• Two types
• Description of culture
• Study of educational problems

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Description of Culture

• Study of school settings
• Sex Role culture w/in school
• Teachers images of knowledge
• Behavior b/w teachers and students
• Categories of play b/w boys at recess

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Study of Educational Problems

• Reading process
• College students career choices
• Social-race relations in school

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Disclaimers

• Source
• Paper
• Presenter
• Qualitative applications
• whole or part?