Abstract
This part addresses methodological and philosophical questions involved in cultural anthropology, utilizing the recent developments in cognitive studies. Cognitivism, conceived as a general approach in cultural anthropology, aims at explaining behaviour by means of the processes of cognitive systems. Two explanatory strategies may be distinguished: intentional explanation of behaviour, and structural explanation by means of cognitive schemata. Of these two strategies, the structural explanation is of vital interest in cultural anthropology, and accordingly it is treated more extensively here. The notion of rationality will play a central role in both explanatory strategies. Intentional explanation assumes that the system’s dynamics are lawful and intelligible; structural explanation assumes that the schemata involved in steering the dynamics are built upon some simple rules.
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Kamppinen, M. (1993). Cognitive Schemata. In: Kamppinen, M. (eds) Consciousness, Cognitive Schemata, and Relativism. Studies in Cognitive Systems, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1141-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1141-8_3
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