Cognized environment

Cognized environment

Cognized environment is a concept first introduced by the late anthropologist, Roy Rappaport (1968), in contrast to what he called the operational environment (see Rappaport 1979:97-144, 1984:337-352). Rappaport was an ecological anthropologist, like Andrew P. Vayda, and wished to contrast the actual reality and adaptations (the operational environment) within a people's ecological niche – say, the existence of tsetse flies and their role in causing sleeping sickness among humans – with how the people’s culture understands nature (the cognized environment) – say, the belief that witches live in those areas that science knows is the habitat of the tsetse. Rappaport’s principal concern was the role of ritual in mediating the cognized and operational environments.

Another group of anthropologists later took up the use of Rappaport’s concepts and applied them toward developing a school of neuroanthropology called Biogenetic Structuralism (see Laughlin and Brady 1978: 6, d'Aquili, Laughlin and McManus 1979: 12ff, Rubinstein, Laughlin and McManus 1984: 21ff, and Laughlin, McManus and d'Aquili 1990:82-90). According to this group, all properties and qualities of experience are mediated by our body’s neuroendocrine systems. These systems function individually and collectively to model reality. The sum total of these models in the brain is the cognized environment. The operational environment refers to the actual niche in which the human or other animal with a brain dwells and adapts. The operational environment is the real world that is modelled by our cognized environment.

See also

References

  • D'Aquili, Eugene G., Charles D. Laughlin and John McManus (1979) The Spectrum of Ritual. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Laughlin, C.D. and I.A. Brady (1978) Extinction and Survival in Human Populations. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Laughlin, Charles D., John McManus and Eugene G. d'Aquili (1990) Brain, Symbol and Experience: Toward a Neurophenomenology of Consciousness. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Rappaport, R.A. (1968) Pigs for the Ancestors. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Rappaport, R.A. (1979) Ecology, Meaning and Religion. Richmond: North Atlantic Books.
  • Rappaport, R.A. (1984) Pigs for the Ancestors. 2nd edition. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Rappaport, R.A. (1999) Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Rubinstein, R.A., C.D. Laughlin and J. McManus (1984) Science As Cognitive Process. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Biogenetic structuralism — is a body of theory in anthropology. The perspective grounds discussions of learning, culture, personality and social action in neuroscience. The original book of that title (Laughlin and d Aquili 1974) represented an interdisciplinary merger of… …   Wikipedia

  • Umwelt — According to Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok, umwelt (plural: umwelten; the German word Umwelt means environment or surrounding world ) is the biological foundations that lie at the very epicenter of the study of both communication and… …   Wikipedia

  • Roy Rappaport — Roy A. Rappaport (1926 ndash;1997) was a distinguished anthropologist known for his contributions to the anthropological study of ritual and to ecological anthropology. Rappaport received his Ph.D. at Columbia University and then held a position… …   Wikipedia

  • Neurognosis — is a technical term used in biogenetic structuralism to refer to the initial organization of the experiencing and cognizing brain[1][2][3]. All neurophysiological models comprising an individual’s cognized environment develop from these nascent… …   Wikipedia

  • Judaism — /jooh dee iz euhm, day , deuh /, n. 1. the monotheistic religion of the Jews, having its ethical, ceremonial, and legal foundation in the precepts of the Old Testament and in the teachings and commentaries of the rabbis as found chiefly in the… …   Universalium

  • Emotions and culture — Emotions are universal phenomena; however, they are affected by culture. While some emotions are universal and are experienced in similar ways as a reaction to similar events across all cultures, other emotions show considerable cultural… …   Wikipedia

  • Conspiracy theory — For other uses, see Conspiracy theory (disambiguation). For a list of conspiracy theories, see List of conspiracy theories. A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”