Why Folkbiology Matters: Resource Conflict Despite Shared Goals and Knowledge

Medin, Douglas L.; Roß, Norbert; Cox, Douglas; Atran, Scott

doi:10.1007/s10745-006-9054-9

Cited by 30 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…This order effect, interesting in and of itself, is consistent with Medin and Waxman's (2007) analysis of the sources underlying asymmetries in inductive reasoning tasks. They proposed that the distinctive features of a target (including its distinctive category label) will reduce generalization from a base to a target.…”

Section: Methodological Issuessupporting

confidence: 83%

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Human-centeredness is not a universal feature of young children's reasoning: Culture and experience matter when reasoning about biological entities

Medin

Waxman

Woodring

et al. 2010

Cognitive Development

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We consider young children's construals of biological phenomena and the forces that shape them, using Carey's (1985) category-based induction task that demonstrated anthropocentric reasoning in young urban children. Follow-up studies (including our own) have questioned the generality of her results, but they have employed quite different procedures and either have not included urban children or, when urban samples were included, have failed to reproduce her original findings. In the present study of 4-10-year-olds from three cultural communities, our procedures followed Carey's more closely and replicated her findings with young urban children. However, they yielded quite different results for young rural European American and young rural Native American children. These results underscore the importance of a complex interaction of culture and experience--including both dayto-day interactions with the natural world and sensitivity to the belief systems of the communities--in children's reasoning about the natural world.An important focus in the cognitive sciences is to identify how knowledge develops and how it is shaped by experience. Within this tradition, the domain of naïve biology --commonsense reasoning about biological phenomena --has attracted considerable interest. In a now classic study, Carey (1985) proposed that naïve biology is a distinct module, but one that is not acquired until sometime after age 6-7. This proposal has had a powerful impact but has also engendered controversy focused on how best to interpret the developmental data (Carey, 1995;Inagaki & Hatano, 2002) and the implications for broader issues, including how we reason about the relation between human beings and the rest of nature. Here we engage these issues but focus especially on the contributions of culture and experience in children's reasoning about the biological world.Although issues of culture and experience have been addressed in other work (including our own), previous studies have a potentially serious limitation---their procedures have differed rather substantially from Carey's original methodology. Consequentially, failures to replicate

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Section: Methodological Issuessupporting

confidence: 83%

“…We briefly describe our populations below (see Medin et al, 2006; Medin et al, 2007 and Ross et al, 2007 for additional background and details on the Wisconsin populations). In each of the three populations (urban, rural, Menominee), children were drawn from three age groups: 4- to 5-year-olds, 6- to 7-year-olds, and 9- to 10-year-olds.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human-centeredness is not a universal feature of young children's reasoning: Culture and experience matter when reasoning about biological entities

Medin

Waxman

Woodring

et al. 2010

Cognitive Development

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show abstract

“…Here, images serve as "discursive power" (Foucault 1980) and must therefore be analyzed as part of the power dynamics where stakeholders are defending or exerting their interests by positioning themselves relative to each other in the competition for resources. Therefore, images, including those stakeholders have of each other, have implications for negotiation and an ability to resolve conflicts, reach goal consensus, and secure compliance (Medin et al 2007). At the end of the day, images have a major impact on the governability of MPAs and hence their success.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Stakeholders Think About Marine Protected Areas: Case Studies from Spain

et al. 2012

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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are often met with reluctance by affected stakeholders, and in some instances outright objection. Some argue that this is due to insufficient understanding of the functions of MPAs. Others suggest that it could be because of a perception that they are losing more than they are gaining. It is also possible that stakeholders are generally supportive of the idea but think that the MPA should be located elsewhere. We argue that it is images people have about what the MPA is and does that determine how they react. Drawing from three MPA case studies in Spain, we illustrate the importance of critical examination of stakeholders' images and what they imply for the governance of MPAs.

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“…We believe that these differences in epistemological orientations foster greater attention to ecological relations in Native communities and a greater tendency to see humans as an integral part of ecosystems. In support of this idea, research by Medin et al (2006), Medin, Ross, Cox, and Atran (2007), and Ross, Medin, Coley, and Atran (2007) with European American and Menominee hunters and fishermen indicated that Menominees were more likely to organize their knowledge in terms of ecological relations and more likely to categorize on the basis of habitat than were European Americans. Related developmental work using an inductive inference task provides evidence that Menominee children are precocious with respect to engaging in ecological reasoning (Ross, Medin, Coley, & Atran, 2003).…”

Section: Epistemologies In Practicementioning

confidence: 95%

Cultural processes in science education: Supporting the navigation of multiple epistemologies

2010

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ABSTRACT:Although there has been considerable focus on the underrepresentation of minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and the need for science instruction that fosters diversity, much of the associated effort has focused on the goal of diversity and tended to assume that science and science learning are acultural. We describe a conceptual framework employed in our work with both urban and rural Native American communities that focuses on culturally based epistemological orientations and their relation to the cultural practices associated with science instruction. We summarize evidence on the efficacy of community-based science education to support the proposition for a shift in orientation toward science education from aiming to have students adopt specific epistemologies to supporting students' navigation of multiple epistemologies.

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Why Folkbiology Matters: Resource Conflict Despite Shared Goals and Knowledge

Cited by 30 publications

References 16 publications

Human-centeredness is not a universal feature of young children's reasoning: Culture and experience matter when reasoning about biological entities

Human-centeredness is not a universal feature of young children's reasoning: Culture and experience matter when reasoning about biological entities

What Stakeholders Think About Marine Protected Areas: Case Studies from Spain

Cultural processes in science education: Supporting the navigation of multiple epistemologies

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