5 Nature and culture: cognitive approach

K.R. Rammohan and Rongnyoo Lepcha

Contents:

1.  Introduction

2.  Cognitive Anthropology

3.  Nature Effecting Culture

4.  Personal Factor/ Experiences: Built up on the knowledge

5.  Summary

Learning Objectives:

• This module will help to understand the concept of cognitive anthropology.
• It will throw light on the relationship of Nature and Culture.
• The module will also look at the different cultural patterns that have been influenced by nature.

Introduction:

“Nature provides for every man’s need not for every man’s greed” is a popular quote used by Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our great nation. Humans are dependent on nature for their survival as everything from food to the basic survival need are all provided by nature. Human culture itself is also the product of culture. Nature and Culture go hand in hand, the anthropological theory of environmental determinism supports strongly that our culture is determined by the environment.

Environmental Determinism: the physical environment, especially the climate and terrain was the active force in shaping cultures, emphasizing that humans were essentially a passive product of the physical surroundings (Hardesty, 1977)

Environmental Possibilism: Environment does not directly cause specific cultural developments but the presence or absence of specific cultural developments and the presence or absence of specific environmental factors limits the development either by permitting or forbidding their occurrences. (Hardesty, 1977)

The theory of cognitivism rose as a response to Behaviourism in the 1950’s. Generally, Behaviourists only acknowledge the existence of thinking, but cognitivism identified thinking as a behaviour. Cognitivism argued that the way people think imparts their behaviour.

In particular, Cognitivism studies the relation between human society and human thought.

   Cognitive theory is an approach to psychology that attempts to explain human behaviour by understanding the thought processes. The assumption is that in humans, thought is the primary determinant of emotions and behaviour. Information processing is a commonly used description of the mental process, comparing the human mind to a computer. Pure cognitive theory largely rejects behaviourism on the basis that behaviourism reduces complex human behaviour to simple cause and effect.

Significant advances have been made in a relatively short period of time in understanding the human mind and in understanding people’s worldviews through cognitive anthropology. It is an exciting and fascinating field that offers both theoretical and methodological insight to nearly every anthropologist. Cognitive anthropology has something to offer in each of anthropology’s four fields: archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology. Moreover, it has significantly changed the face of cultural anthropology, particularly with respect to its methodological development. Cognitive methods are used in a variety of anthropology contexts and applied to a variety of subjects. While cognitive anthropology has relied on a strong tradition of linguistic and cultural approaches, perhaps its greatest challenge lay in demonstrating its applicability to the biological and archaeological subfields. In short, cognitive anthropology holds much promise for the future of cultural analysis.

Cognitive Anthropology

According to D’Andrade, cognitive anthropology is “the study of relation between human society and human thought” (Trajtelova, 2013). A cognitive anthropologist wants to comprehend how people from various societies make use of their knowledge in their everyday life, in what way they organize this knowledge, how they pass it on and maintain it, and how they conventionalize this knowledge as it is becoming a part of a cultural tradition. Culture is the key term of cognitive anthropology. Cognitive anthropologists share a common basic presumption that culture is pre-existent more in people’s mind than objectively in itself. To clarify this, in the field of cognitive anthropology, culture is defined as a kind of knowledge or as a system of ideas.

The studies of cognitive anthropologists have a considerably intensive scope, their common interest is in complex cognitive systems, wide range of cognitive processes, where sensory perception and description is at one end of the continuum and the other one is the conceptualization and interpretation of phenomena in a natural and socio-cultural reality. Cognitive anthropology investigates cultural knowledge, knowledge which is embedded in words, stories and artefacts, and which is learned from and shared with other humans. It is distinguished mostly by its methodology, which originated in attempts to fit formal linguistic methods into linguistic and social anthropology.

Cognitive anthropology generally focuses on the intellectual and rational aspects of culture, particularly through studies of language use. The centrality of language to cognitive anthropology is related to the origins of the subfield. This methodology also assumes that semantic categories marked by linguistic forms are related to meaningful cultural categories. Cognitive anthropological methods for revealing meaningful cultural categories in language have also been expanded to more general ethnographic methods and some recent work has focused on emotions and culture. Cognitive anthropology is a recent subfield, but interests in mind, culture, and society are well established across the social sciences. Its interests are in the relationship between mind and experience, both anthropology and psychology believe that mental capacities are indefinitely malleable and receptive, and that the content and structure of knowledge is created by experience and environment.

Cognitive anthropology is closely aligned with psychology, because both explore the nature of cognitive process (D’Andrade, 1995). It has also adopted theoretical elements and methodological techniques from structuralism and linguistics. Cognitive anthropology is a broad field of inquiry; for example, studies have examined how people arrange colors and plants into categories as well how people conceptualize disease in terms of symptoms, cause, and appropriate treatment.

Knowledge is a part of culture and our thought process creates knowledge. Knowledge is created through experiences and the environment surrounding it. Knowledge is mostly gained from experience; these experiences slowly build up our knowledge.

Nature Effecting Culture

Environment affects human behaviour and this affects the ways one thinks. The relationship between culture and nature is reciprocal. Nature effect culture and in turn culture effects the nature around us and it can be rightly said as “culture imposes itself on Nature”. Culture takes the natural urge we share with other animals and teaches us how to express them in particular ways. People have to eat, and culture teaches us what, when and how. (Kottak, 1997)

The primary mechanism by which humans adapt to their environment is culture, probably “the most potent method of adaptation” available to humans (Dobzhansky, 1972:422). Cultural responses include technology and organization, such as the structure of economic, political, and social systems. Compared to biology, culture is an extremely flexible and rapid adaptive mechanism because “behavioural responses to external environmental forces can be acquired, transmitted, and modified within the lifetimes of individuals” (Henry, 1995:1).

All people belong to a specific culture, and each culture has a distinct ecological adaptation. Cultures interact with both the natural and cultural environment. A culture must first meet the biological needs of its members. Then the cultural needs of its members must be met, accomplished through religion, social regulation, and other mechanisms. The combination of the biological and cultural ecological interplay is complex.

Individuals in cultures are born into a system operating within a given environment (Dobzhansky, 1972:427). In traditional societies, the cultural system one is born into tends to be more influenced by the natural environment. In industrialized cultures, the environment tends to be much more socioeconomic, with class and income (which helps in access of resources) being the major environmental difference between individuals (Dobzhansky, 1972:427). Thus, in industrialized cultures, selection processes operate more on socioeconomic factors, influencing the genetic makeup of populations. As the environment (abiotic, biotic, and cultural) changes, humans adapt both biologically and culturally.

We can take the example of the famous ethnographic film ‘The Nanook of the North’ by Robert J. Flaherty; This original ethnographic film showcases the conditions, habitat of the environment. Living in a very cold environment affects their way of thinking thus producing material culture like warm cloths, sleds which make it easier for them to travel in the snow. Harpoons and fishing rods as the areas are not appropriate for vegetation so they need to hunt seals and fish.

The Eskimo cultures are based on the environment they live in, that is of extreme cold have helped them evolve a culture to adapt to the cold environment. The Inuit of the Arctic have realized effective cultural adaptations to cold stress in terms of clothing and shelter. They wear layered clothing, trapping air between layers to act as an insulator. They wear cloth made of seal skin as to trap body heat. They live in tents made of animal skin and as they travel on their snow sleds drawn by snow dog. They also construct temporary shelters igloos (house made of snow blocks) which is excellent for trapping heat inside because of its shape. They use snow as an excellent insulator; permanent housing uses underground entrances and higher living areas.

Image 1. Eskimos building an Igloo. (www.firstpeople.us/tipi/eskimos-building-an-igloo-1918.html)

The Eskimos have tools like fishing tools, harpoons, spears, etc. especially designed for hunting seals, fishing and sometimes snow fox, and other animals. Since the environment they live in has no vegetation most of the year they fully depend on animal meat and fish for their survival.

Image 2. Fishing techniques of the Eskimos.

Source: pinterest

Human populations in dry, hot environments have realized effective cultural adaptations to heat stress using clothing and shelter designs to reduce heat production, reduce heat gain from radiation and conduction, and increased evaporation. The Typical clothing pattern among the people living in dry and humid environment is light and loose clothing. Shelters are frequently built compact, light colours are used to reflect the sun rays, and doors and windows are kept closed during the day. (Relethford, 1990)

Cognitivism looks into knowledge gathered from: words, stories, artefacts. Words depict knowledge of any community (languages). These are words that the community know of/have knowledge about but what the community does not know about the word does not exist. Stories are another aspect that can unfold the age old knowledge of any community.

Artefacts clearly show the culture and knowledge that a community possesses. Tools, ornaments, pots are created according to the cultural needs, depending on the knowledge. These all traits are learned/ shared from one generation to another or from one individual to another. The San (Bushmen) of the Kalahari Desert use a small bow and poison arrows for hunting since they have to hide in the tall dry grasses of the semi desert and camouflage themselves for the hunt, since a big bow would require a lot of body strength which would require them to stand making it inappropriate for hunting.

Image 3. A Bushman Hunting

Source: (https://kiwifootprints.com)

The Bushman culture clearly shows their way of living with their hunting expertise that there are other cultural traits like they wear minimum clothing as they live in very hot environment. Their food culture includes gathered underground roots, meat from the hunt and collected wild fruits, nuts, etc. They live in house made of branches of tress, something like twigs and roof made of long dried grasses, this is mainly used to reflect the heat.

Image 4. A sang hut

Source: pinterest

Cognitivism looks into how people of various societies make use of the different knowledge; how they pass on and maintain it and attempts to explain human behaviour by understanding the thought process. Thoughts are inspired by the nature around an individual or a group and as thoughts determine human behaviour which in turn determines culture. As already mentioned the cognitive theory or Cognitivism has three main variables: Behavioural Factors, Environment Factors, Personal Factors/ Experiences.

Behaviour Factors: thoughts affect a person’s behaviour in turn affecting the way they think. Environment Factors: External Factors can alter the way you behave. The type environment around us can affect the way we act.

Personal Factor/ Experiences: Built up on the knowledge

Studies on cognitivism or Cognitive Anthropology can be traced back to Franz Boas. He realized that different people have different conceptions of the world around them. He focused his life’s work on understanding the relation between the human mind and the environment. He focused on understanding the psychology of the tribal people, investigating tribal categories of sense and perception such as colour, some communities only have the concept of few colours for example the Lepchas (a hill tribe native of the Sikkim and Darjeeling hills) know only the colours white, black, blue, green, red, yellow while the English language have a long list of colours.

Image 5. Colour grid showing white, green, yellow, black, red and blue colours

Source: pinterest

Communities all over the world have their own ways of putting plants into categories, they have their own conceptualize diseases in terms of symptoms, cause and treatment.

Summary

Cognitive anthropology not only focuses on discovering how different people organize culture but also how they utilize culture. Contemporary cognitive anthropology attempts to access the organizing principles that underlie and motivate human behaviour. Through the scope of cognitive anthropology is expansive; its methodology continues to depend on a long standing tradition of ethnographic fieldwork and structured interviews. But some of the most severe criticisms of cognitive anthropology have come from its own practitioners. According to Keesing the so called ”New Ethnography” was unable to move beyond the analysis of artificially simplified and often semantic domains. Ethno-scientists tend to study such things as colour categories and folk taxonomies, without being able to elucidate their relevance to understanding culture as a whole. Taking a lead from generative grammar in linguistics, ethno-scientists sought cultural grammars, intending to move beyond the analyses of semantic categories and domains into wider behavioural realms. While cognitive anthropologists of the last two decades have attempted to address these problems, there are inherent problems attached to it. One of the most glaring problems is that almost all investigators do the majority of their research in English. Cognitive anthropology deals with abstract theories regarding the nature of the mind. While they have been plethora of methods for accessing culture contained in the mind, questions remain about whether the results in fact reflect how individuals organize and perceive society or whether they are merely manufactured by investigators, having no foundation in their subjects’ reality.

Another criticism is that universal agreement on how to find culture in the mind has yet to emerge. When one compares the work of major figures in the field, such as D’Andrade, Kronenfeld, and Shore, it is clear they each have a different idea about just how to pursue the goals of the field. While some may contend that this is a deficiency, it attests to the field’s vitality and the centrality of the issues under contention. Moreover when approaching an issue as complex as the human mind, mental process, and culture, it is salutary to seek a multifaceted convergence.

As all environments are dynamic, a culture must make constant adjustments just to maintain some sort of equilibrium, and there is a constant interplay between cultural practices and biological adaptations using their cognitive thinking.

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) with key answers

1.    The Theory Cognitivism rose as a response to

a)      Environment determinism

b)      Environment Possibilism

c)      Behaviourism

d)      Cognitive structures

2.   Cognitivism studies the relationship between

a)      Society and Thoughts

b)      Nature and Man

c)      Only Man

d)      Only Nature

3.      Who proposed ‘ Cognitive Anthropology’ ?

a)      De Maarkar

b)      D’ Andrade

c)      Ruth Benedict

d)      Charles Wallace

4.      cognitive anthropology is “the study of’

a)      relation between human society and human thought

b)      relation between human society and animal kingdom

c)      relation between human society and plant kingdom

d)       relation between human society and animistic world

5.    Cognitive anthropology generally focuses

a)      and rational aspects of culture

b)      irrational aspects of culture

c)      Material culture

d)  Arts and Crafts

6.  The relationship between culture and nature is

a) Not reciprocal

b) Reciprocal

c) Anti reciprocal

d) Asymmetrical

7.  The primary mechanism by which humans adapt to their environment

a) Animistic world

b) Culture

c) Physical aspects

d) Passive

8.    What is ecological adaptation ?

a)  Each culture has a distinct adaptation

b)  All cultures have same adaptation

c)  environmental adaptation

d)  environment dictates

9.  The combination of the biological and cultural ecological interplay is

a)  Simple

b ) Complex

c)  Unique

d)  Only some aspects

10) In traditional societies, the cultural system is

a)  natural environment

b ) mystic elements

c)  multidimensional

d)  biological aspects

11.  In industrialized cultures, the environment tends to be

a) Super natural

b) Socio- economic factors

c) physical aspects

d) Materials

12.  The Nanook of the North’ produced by

a)  Robert Flaherty

b)  Robert Gibbons

c)  Dobzhansky

d)  None of the above

13. The Inuit lives in

a)  Antarctic

b)  Artic

c)  North Africa

d ) Alaska

14. The house made my Inuit is called as

a)  Jigloo

b)  Igloo

c ) Magloo

d)  Ingloo

15.  Inuit use snow as

a) Insulator

b) Inside the house

c ) Outside the house

d) Do not use snow

16.  Houses are built on

a) Higher living areas

b ) Lower living areas

c ) Middle living areas

d ) Corners of the snow mountains

17. The Eskimos have tools like fishing tools like

a) Harpoons and spears

b) Swords and Knife

c) Wooden bows

d) Crow bars

18. Cognitivism looks into knowledge of

a) Words, Stories and artifacts

b) Only language

c) Only thinking

d) Material aspects

19. The Bushman are good at

a) Swimming

b) Hunting

c) Running

d) Catching

20. The major criticism of Cognitivism is

a) How to find culture in mind

b) How to find culture in spirits

c) How to find culture in rocks

d) how to find culture in environment

Answer Keys

1.C, 2.A, 3.B, 4.A, 5.A, 6.B, 7.B, 8.A, 9.B, 10.A, 11.B, 12.A, 13.B, 14.B, 15.B, 16.A, 17.A, 18.A,19.B, 20.A