For some time cognitive anthropology, and indeed cognitive science generally, have been concerned with issues of conceptual representation. Inadequacies in classical and more recent approaches, in particular, prototype theories, have motivated a search for alternative accounts. We propose an approach to conceptual representation that requires the specification of domain theories, from which conceptual definitions are generated, and within which the relations among concepts can be formalized. We demonstrate the utility of a formal characterization of this view of domains and concepts (...) in the analysis of an aspect of the basic metaphysics constructed by the people of West Futuna, Vanuatu. In the process, we expand the set of formal devices traditionally relied upon by anthropologists and others involved in cognitive studies, and thereby gain insight into the complexity of the metaphysical beliefs of an Oceanic people. (shrink)

This article discusses some aspects of developments in the Czech Republic during the 15 years since the downfall of the Communist regime. At the level of social structures, the dominant trend has been a rapid growth of inequality, which has blocked the development of a middle-class society. At the political level, the most salient tendency is the growth of a 'silent majority', not least due to the murky methods of privatization and the manifest corruption among the new elite. The problems (...) of the ecological movement exemplify the difficulties faced by nascent civil societies in post-Communist conditions. Finally, the author tries to identify likely trends linked to the dynamic of globalization. Here the most serious problem is the stagnation or even decline of the employees and small entrepreneurs who were once expected to become the backbone of civil society. (shrink)