Culture And Cognition

In recent years, several books and articles have targeted the field of culture and cognition. Parallel with this, researchers have paid increased attention over the past three decades to the combination of anthropology and psy­chology. New journals like Culture & Psychology (first volume in 1995) and Culture and cognition (first volume in 2001) and the development of specialized programs at major research universities are the progeny of this increasing interest (e.g., the Culture and cognition Program at the University of Michigan and the Culture, Language and Cognition Program at Northwestern University). Both the programs and the journals target an interdisciplinary audience and address a major necessity in the field: com­bining the study of the culture with an understanding of the appropriate cognitive processes, and challenge of studying the high-level cognition like embedded in the particular cultural context.

Fruitful as they are, these interdisciplinary collaborations between anthropologists and psychologists are the exception rather than the rule, and few individuals truly master both fields. Some examples of successful cross-discipline collaborations are the research projects conducted by Wassmann and Dasen (1993); the research project carried out by Cole and colleagues (Cole, 1996); recent work by Bloch, Solomon, and Carey (2001); and the long-term collaboration among the members of our research team, including Douglas Medin and Scott Arran. On the rare occasions when both disciplines are equally engaged in developing methods and theory rather than applying psychological methods in "exotic settings," results often challenge previous theories and provide promising insights for both academic disciplines. Unfortunately, these kinds of research proj­ects are rather exceptional and are rarely taken seriously by the respective mainstream fields.

Still, the findings speak for themselves and are gaining an increasing readership. For example, recent research in folk biology shows the existence of universal principles in cognition like the taxonomical sorting of ani­mals and plants. Subsequent research addressed (a) the character of these universalities, but was also able to (b) establish clear cultural differences that go beyond the commonalities.   It is important to realize that these accounts go beyond the efforts of previous research in that culture and cultural differences are not assumed a priori, but are systematically explored with the help of formal methods. Also, cultural differences once identified are not regarded as the endpoint of the research, but as the starting point for the more important questions that target the origin and character of these differences.

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