Showing papers by "Maurice Bloch published in 1998"

How We Think They Think: Anthropological Approaches To Cognition, Memory, And Literacy

Abstract: “Maurice Bloch is so ferociously smart that one can always enjoy tangling with his ideas, even when—perhaps especially when—one doesn’t agree with him. This is an important and provocative book.” —Sherry Ortner Columbia University These essays by one of anthropology’s most original theorists consider such fundamental questions as: Is cognition language-based? How reliable a guide to memory are people’s narratives about themselves? What connects the “social recalling” studied by anthropologists to the “autobiographical memory” studied by psychologists? Now gathered in accessible form for the first time and drawing frequently upon the author’s fieldwork among the Zafimaniry of Madagascar for ethnographic examples, the twelve closely linked essays of How We Think They Think pose provocative challenges not only to conventional cognitive models but to the basic assumptions that underlie much of ethnography. This book will be read with interest by those who study culture and cognition, ethnographic theory and practice, and the peoples and cultures of Africa.

Du cerveau à la culture : qu’est-ce que l’anthropologie cognitive ?

Abstract: Les culturalistes voient dans les cultures des systemes de symboles utilises par les gens pour communiquer entre eux. A ce titre, ils considerent l'etude de la psychologie individuelle comme inutile pour leur objet : selon eux, l'individu est le produit et non la source de la culture et du langage qu'il manie. Le culturalisme rejette egalement l'approche transactionnaliste ainsi que la sociobiologie. Ces trois theories ont pourtant en commun d'accorder tres peu de place a l'individu, ce que recuse l'anthropologie cognitive. Ainsi, si cette derniere se penche sur la biologie du cerveau, elle met les facultes mentales humaines au centre de ses preoccupations. Les anthropologues culturalistes pensaient que les mots rendaient compte fidelement des concepts. Or, un ecart existe dans de nombreux cas entre l'organisation des connaissances et ce qui peut en etre dit.