A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning

by Claudia Strauss , Naomi Quinn

• ISBN13: 9780521594097
• ISBN10: 052159409X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-01-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

"Culture" and "meaning" are central to anthropology, but anthropologists do not agree on what they are. Claudia Strauss and Naomi Quinn propose a new theory of cultural meaning, one that gives priority to the way people's experiences are internalized. Drawing on "connectionist" or "neural network" models as well as other psychological theories, they argue that cultural meanings are not fixed or limited to static groups, but neither are they constantly revised or contested. Their approach is illustrated by original research on understandings of marriage and ideas of success in the United States.

Table of Contents

List of figures	ix	(1)
List of tables	x	(1)
Acknowledgments	xi
Part I Background	3	(86)
1 Introduction	3	(9)
Meanings and culture	5	(3)
Psychology and cultural anthropology	8	(2)
Summary of the book	10	(2)
2 Anthropological resistance	12	(36)
Interpretivism: meanings are public	13	(10)
Poststructuralism and postmodernism: culture and the self are constructed	23	(13)
Historical materialism: people can resist cultural meanings	36	(6)
Cognition in practice/discourse pragmatics: meanings depend on context	42	(2)
Toward a more fruitful resolution: Bourdieu	44	(4)
3 Schema theory and connectionism	48	(41)
Introduction to connectionism	50	(10)
Connectionism for the somewhat more formally minded	60	(22)
Final comments: symbols and meanings	82	(7)
Part II Implications for a theory of culture	89	(48)
4 Two properties of culture	89	(22)
Durability in the individual	89	(12)
Motivational force	101	(10)
5 Three further properties of culture	111	(26)
Historical durability	111	(7)
Thematicity	118	(4)
Sharedness	122	(15)
Part III Practice and possibilities	137	(120)
6 Research on shared task solutions	137	(52)
NAOMI QUINN
Analysis 1. Metaphors for marriage and what they do	140	(20)
Analysis 2. A shared schema for reasoning about marriage	160	(27)
Conclusion	187	(2)
7 Research on the psychodynamics of shared understandings	189	(21)
NAOMI QUINN
Analysis 3. The psychodynamic basis of marital love	189	(19)
Conclusion	208	(2)
8 Research on cultural discontinuities	210	(42)
CLAUDIA STRAUSS
Analysis 1. How are conflicting discourses internalized?	213	(18)
Analysis 2. The disparate motivational effects of different forms of culture learning	231	(14)
Analysis 3. Disjunctures between shared understandings and public culture	245	(6)
Conclusion	251	(1)
9 Beyond old oppositions	252	(5)
Notes	257	(34)
References	291	(22)
General index	313	(6)
Name index	319