Rethinking Complexity and Culture: Cognitive Science as Explanatory Framework for Cultural Phenomena
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Journal of Cognition and Culture |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685373-12342160 |
| Field | Philosophy and religion |
| Keywords | Cognitive Science of Religion; culture; complexity; explanation; evolution; cognition |
| Description | This year is a significant milestone for the cognitive science of religion (CSR) and culture because it marks the 15th year or the Journal of Cognition and Culture and 25 years since the field of CSR was initiated by the publication of Lawson and McCauley’s Rethinking Religion (1990). In the past 25 years, the field has grown in many ways. The advent of new books series, academic bodies, research institutes, and journals are a testament to the expansion of the field. However, basic overviews of the current state of “cognitive anthropology” or the “cognitive science of religion” reveal that the field has shifted from its original foundations. Largely, this can be observed in the resurgence of using abstract phenomena (e.g., “culture”, “religion”, context) as causal variables rather than demonstrating how that variable may be the result of complex interactions between our mind and our surroundings; such approaches represent a shift away from the information processing approach utilized in the past which relied on information processing mechanisms to explain complex phenomena. |
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