Turning Tides: Prospects for More Diversity in Cognitive Science

Bender, Andrea; Beller, Sieghard; Medin, Douglas L.

doi:10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01202.x

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Humans see causality everywhere and in everything. Because the interpretation of causality is so omnipresent in everyday life, it is no surprise that it has been the subject of many studies (Shaver, 1895 ; Sperber et al, 1996 , inter alia; Bender and Beller, 2011b ; Bender et al, 2012 ). Interdisciplinary studies of causal thinking remain, however, rare in the social sciences 2 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of (exceptional) causal relations. A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic study

et al. 2015

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In order to make sense of the world, humans tend to see causation almost everywhere. Although most causal relations may seem straightforward, they are not always construed in the same way cross-culturally. In this study, we investigate concepts of “chance,” “coincidence,” or “randomness” that refer to assumed relations between intention, action, and outcome in situations, and we ask how people from different cultures make sense of such non-law-like connections. Based on a framework proposed by Alicke (2000), we administered a task that aims to be a neutral tool for investigating causal construals cross-culturally and cross-linguistically. Members of four different cultural groups, rural Mayan Yucatec and Tseltal speakers from Mexico and urban students from Mexico and Germany, were presented with a set of scenarios involving various types of causal and non-causal relations and were asked to explain the described events. Three links varied as to whether they were present or not in the scenarios: Intention-to-Action, Action-to-Outcome, and Intention-to-Outcome. Our results show that causality is recognized in all four cultural groups. However, how causality and especially non-law-like relations are interpreted depends on the type of links, the cultural background and the language used. In all three groups, Action-to-Outcome is the decisive link for recognizing causality. Despite the fact that the two Mayan groups share similar cultural backgrounds, they display different ideologies regarding concepts of non-law-like relations. The data suggests that the concept of “chance” is not universal, but seems to be an explanation that only some cultural groups draw on to make sense of specific situations. Of particular importance is the existence of linguistic concepts in each language that trigger ideas of causality in the responses from each cultural group.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of (exceptional) causal relations. A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic study

et al. 2015

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“…However, barely anything is known about the historical and cultural context from which these systems evolved, their properties as distributed cognitive systems, their application to daily life tasks, or their acquisition and adaptation during years of development and schooling. In this book, Geoffrey Saxe presents a body‐based counting system in this very broad context, thereby providing an excellent and rich case study of numerical cognition ‘in the wild.’ In doing so, he highlights what the Cognitive Sciences can gain from anthropologically informed cognitive studies (as called for in the articles of Bender, Beller and Medin ; Whitehouse and Cohen ) such as deep insights into the construction and alteration of cognitive representations within the sociocultural context and its changing demands.…”

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confidence: 99%

Cultural Development of Mathematical Ideas: The Papua New Guinea Studies by Geoffrey B.Saxe. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2012. xiii‐362 pp.

Beller

2014

Ethos

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“…In attempting to understand but also to measure people's relationships and knowledge of nature and supernatural beings, we draw from the fields of cross‐cultural psychology and cognitive anthropology. Anthropologists have advocated and demonstrated the feasibility and the benefit of a multidisciplinary approach (see Beller, Bender & Medin ; Bender, Beller & Medin ; Cohen ). The combination of anthropological and psychological approaches has been particularly fruitful for the study of religious beliefs.…”

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confidence: 99%

A garden experiment revisited: inter‐generational change in environmental perception and management of the Maya Lowlands, Guatemala

Guen

Iliev²,

Lois

et al. 2013

Royal Anthropological Inst

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This study reports ethnographic and experimental analyses of inter-generational changes in native Itza' Maya and immigrant Ladino populations of Guatemala's Petén rainforest concerning understanding of ecological relationships between plants, animals, and humans, and the perceived role of forest spirits in sustaining these relationships. We find dramatic changes in understanding ecological relationships and the perceived role of forest spirits. Itza' Maya conceptions of forest spirits (arux) are now more often confounded with Ladino spirits (duendes), with Itza' spirits no longer reliably serving as forest guardians. These changes correlate with a shift in personal values regarding the forest, away from concern with ecologically central trees and towards monetary incentives. More generally, we describe how economic, demographic, and social changes relate to the loss of a system of beliefs and behaviours that once promoted sustainable agro-forestry practices. These changes coincide with open access to common pool resources.In this study we describe an ongoing research project on how different groups of agro-foresters in the lowland rainforest of Guatemala deal with a resource dilemma involving the forest itself. Using ethnographic and experimental methods we describe inter-generational changes in Itza' Maya and Ladino understandings of ecological relationships between plants, animals, and humans, and the perceived role of forest spirits in sustaining these relationships.While dealing with the conception of environment, this study also contributes to the perennial debate of nature versus culture. The subfield of ecological anthropology or French anthropologie de la nature is mainly interested in understanding the concept of nature as well as people's relation to nature. In recent years, ecological anthropology has been especially concerned theoretically and practically with environment policies, bs_bs_banner

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Turning Tides: Prospects for More Diversity in Cognitive Science

Cited by 3 publications

References 18 publications

Making sense of (exceptional) causal relations. A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic study

Making sense of (exceptional) causal relations. A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic study

Cultural Development of Mathematical Ideas: The Papua New Guinea Studies by Geoffrey B.Saxe. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2012. xiii‐362 pp.

A garden experiment revisited: inter‐generational change in environmental perception and management of the Maya Lowlands, Guatemala

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