Cognitive anthropology is a subfield of Sociocultural Anthropology. It is the study of how people think, learn, and remember. It examines the way that culture shapes these cognitive processes, as well as the way that they in turn shape culture.
Cognitive anthropologists are very interested in the relationship between language and thought. They believe that language is a key tool in understanding how people think and remember. They also believe that language can shape thought, and that different languages can lead people to think about the world in different ways.
Cognitive anthropology is closely related to psychology and neuroscience. Many cognitive anthropologists use methods from these disciplines in order to study the relationship between culture and cognition.
What are the aims of cognitive anthropology?
One of the main goals of cognitive anthropology is to understand how human cognition evolved over time. This can be done by studying the way that different cultures think and learn. For instance, cognitive anthropologists might compare the way that children in a hunter-gatherer society learn to hunt and gather with the way that children in a modern society learn math and science.
Cognitive anthropology is also interested in the way that culture shapes cognition on a individual level. For example, it might explore the way that language influences the way we think, or the way that religion shapes our beliefs about the world.
Related terms:
Cognition: The process of thinking, learning, and remembering.
Culture: The shared values, beliefs, and practices of a group of people.
Psychology: The study of the mind and behaviour.
Neuroscience: The study of the nervous system.
Linguistics: The study of language.
Glossary Terms starting with C
- Capital – The Physical or Financial Resources required for Production
- Capitalism – An Economic System in which the Means of Production are Privately Owned
- Cargo Cult – Religious Movements claiming to obtain material goods (cargo) for indigenous people
- Cash Crops – Crops grown for Sale
- Caste – Social Groups Ranked Hierarchically by Birth, Marriage or Occupation
- Caudillismo – A Form of Dictatorship commonly associated with Latin America
- City, Anthropology of the – The Study of Urban Spaces and Culture
- Class Consciousness – When a Class recognises its Common Interests
- Cline – The Study of the Gradual Change in a Population over Time
- Cognatic Kinship – Tracing Descent through both the Maternal and Paternal line
- Cognitive Anthropology – The Study of How Culture impacts Human Cognition
- Colonialism – Acquiring and Maintaining Control over another Country or Territory
- Commensality – The Social Practice of Eating Together
- Concubinage – A Formalised Sexual Relationship between a Man and Women which is not equal to Marriage
- Consanguinity – The State of being related to someone by descent from a common ancestor
- Conscience Collective – The Shared Beliefs and Values of a Group or Society
- Conspicuous Consumption – Spending Money on Luxury Goods to Display Wealth and Status
- Contagious Magic – Items that have been in contact remain connected
- Creole Language – An Amalgam of the Colonial Language and Indigenous Language
- Cultural Baseline – The State of a Culture Before it Comes into Contact with Another Culture
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links. When you use one of these affiliate links, the company compensates us. At no additional cost to you, we will earn a commission, which helps us run this blog and keep our in-depth content free of charge for all our readers.
