2-IKV-184 Cognitive Antropology

Evaluation during the course: written preparation (30%), oral presentation (30%)

Concluding evaluation: final presentation (40%)

Subject aim: Provide students with detailed knowledge about current trends in cognitive anthropology, especially about its naturalistic and evolutionary versions. To show how are contemporary research programs in this discipline conducted and what are key theoretical initiatives in this field.

Brief curriculum of the subject:

(1) Background Theory: Computational-Representational Mind. (2) Meaning and Culture. (3) Methodological Individualism and Cognitivism. (4) What Is Social Fact? (5) Anthropology and Psychology. (6) Evolutiond and Modularity. (7) Domain-Specificity in Cognition and Culture, (8) Folk Theories and Domains I: ToM. (9) Folk Theories and Domains II: Folkbiology. (10) Folk Theories and Domains III: Folksociology.

Literature:

Sperber, D.: Expalining Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Hirschfeld, L., Gelman, S.: Mapping the Mind. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press, 1994.

Hirschfeld, L. Race in the Making. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press, 1996.

Boyer, P.: Religion Explained. New York: Basic Books, 2001

Language in which the subject is taught: English / Slovak

Date of the last sheet revision: 6.6.2007