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Cognitive processes and collective representations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Paul Harris  and
Paul Heelas
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Extract

Anthropologists typically adopt the assumption of psychic unity: man universally exhibits the same fundamental cognitive processes. Hence, any apparent heterogeneity in collective representations may not be explained by psychological postulates. On the basis of recent cross-cultural studies of cognitive processes, we move beyond this standard anthropological assumption, arguing that there is cultural variability in the mode of thinking which is elaborated in specific conceptual domains. We shall also reject, however, the traditional alternatives to the assumption of psychic unity: the hypothesis that there is a pervasive mode of primitive thought or that in the course of history the intellect has marched through general stages of thinking.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , November 1979 , pp. 211 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1979

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