MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences - Cryptome

events in the environment are associated with appropriate
schema variables.
A number of words—buy, sell, pay, cost, worth, value,
spend, and charge—activate the [Commercial Event]
schema. Each of these words selects particular aspects of
the schema for highlighting or foregrounding, while leaving
others in the background unexpressed. Buy focuses on the
exchange from the buyer’s perspective, and sell from the
seller’s perspective. Cost focuses on the money part of
the money-goods relationship, and value and worth focus on
the goods part of the relationship. Pay and spend focus
on the buyer and the money part of the money-goods
relationship, and charge focuses on the seller and the goods
part of the money-goods relationship (Fillmore 1977).
Classification systems are complex cultural models
structured by hierarchical embedding. Entities—objects,
acts, and events—that are in fact different are grouped
together in conceptual categories and regarded as equivalent.
Semantic relationships among the categories define
cognitive systems. Taxonomic hierarchies, or taxonomies,
are classifications structured on the basis of the inclusion, or
“kind of,” relationship. Some categories included in the tree
category, for example, are oak, pine, elm, spruce, poplar,
walnut, and fir. Oak in turn includes white oak, post oak, pin
oak, and many other kinds of oak.
Nontaxonomic classifications of various types are also
hierarchically structured. Partonomic classifications are
organized in terms of part-whole relationships. The family
category, for example, has among its members (or parts)
mother, son, and sister. Functional classifications are constructed
on the basis of the instrumental, or “used for”, relationship—a
vehicle is any object that can be used for
transportation, for example, car, bus, moped, or unicycle
(Wierzbicka 1985).
Event scenarios are complex cultural models structured
by horizontal linkages. Scenes in event schemata are linked
in ordered sequences by way of causal relationships. The
Yakan, a Philippine agricultural society living on Basilan
Island in houses elevated on piles, have an event schemata
specifying “how to enter a Yakan house.” Social encounters
are defined by the degree to which outsiders are able to
negotiate penetration into households. An outsider
progresses from “in the vicinity” of the house to “at” the
house, from “below” the house to “on” the porch, from
“outside” on the porch to “inside” the main room, and from
the “foot zone” at the entrance door to the “head zone”
opposite the door, which is the most private setting in the
house (Frake 1975: 26–33).
Metaphorical cultural models are structured by conceptual
METAPHORS. Abstract concepts that are not clearly
delineated in experience, such as time, love, and ideas, are
metaphorically structured, understood, and discussed in
terms of other concepts that are more concrete in experience,
such as money, travel, and foods (Lakoff and Johnson
1980). The metaphorical concept “embarrassment is exposure”
is an example. The embarrassment schema is structured
in terms of the exposure schema. The systematicity of
the metaphor is reflected in everyday speech formulas,
which are sources of insight into and evidence for the nature
of the metaphor. Fixed-form expressions for “embarrass-
Cognitive Anthropology 121
ment is exposure” are evident in these sentences: “You
really exposed yourself,” “He felt the weight of everyone’s
eyes,” “I felt naked,” “I was caught with my pants down,”
and “I wanted to crawl under a rock” (Holland and Kipnis
1994: 320–322).
Cultural universals are systems of conceptual knowledge
that occur in all societies. In studying cognitive
commonalities, anthropologists assume a “limited relativist,”
or universalist, position, adopting a relativist view in
recognizing differences in cognitive and cultural systems
and a universalist position in emphasizing fundamental
concepts and uniformities in these systems (Lounsbury
1969: 10).
Comparative color category research, for instance, has
shown that basic color categories are organized around best
examples, and that these focal colors are the same across
individuals and languages (Berlin and Kay 1969). It has also
established that there are exactly eleven of these universal
color categories—[black], [white], [red], [green], [yellow],
[blue], [brown], [purple], [orange], [pink] and [gray]—that
they are encoded in a strict evolutionary sequence, and that
these universals are determined largely by neurophysiological
processes in human color perception (Kay, Berlin, and
Merrifield 1991; see COLOR CLASSIFICATION).
Cultural consensus is concerned with individual variability
in cultural knowledge and how the diversity of individual
conceptual systems are organized in cultural systems. Consensus
theory examines the patterns of agreement among
group members about particular domains of cultural knowledge
in order to determine the organization of cognitive
diversity. It establishes both a “correct” version of cultural
knowledge and patterns of cognitive diversity (Romney,
Weller, and Batchelder 1986: 316).
The Aguaruna Jivaro, a forest tribe in northern Peru, for
example, derive the majority of their sustenance from manioc
plants. A study of Aguaruna manioc gardens discovered
that, although individual Aguaruna vary widely in their
naming of manioc plants, they nonetheless maintain a consensus
model of manioc classification. Patterns of agreement
reveal that individuals learn a single set of manioc
categories with varying degrees of success: some individuals
have greater cultural competence in manioc identification
than others (Boster 1985: 185).
See also CATEGORIZATION; CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY;
CULTURAL RELATIVISM; CULTURAL VARIATION; HUMAN
UNIVERSALS; LANGUAGE AND CULTURE; METAPHOR AND
CULTURE; NATURAL KINDS
—Ronald W. Casson
References
Berlin, B., and P. Kay. (1969). Basic Color Terms: Their Universality
and Evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Boster, J. S. (1985). “Requiem for the Omniscient Informant”:
There’s life in the old girl yet. In J. W. D. Dougherty, Ed.,
Directions in Cognitive Anthropology. Urbana: University of
Illinois Press.
Casson, R. W. (1994). Cognitive anthropology. In P. K. Bock, Ed.,
Handbook of Psychological Anthropology. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press.