Motivation and the will to power: ethnopsychology and the return of Thomas Hobbes

Article Abstract:

The notion of motivation underlying Catherine Lutz's ethnopsychological account of emotion terms in Ifaluk in 'Unnatural Emotions' is based on a idea of power similar to that of Thomas Hobbes. Lutz's conception of power is not dialectical as in Bourdieu and other Continental philosophers, but is more like the traditional Anglo-Saxon conception of power as a utilitarian force resulting from competition for limited resources. The return to Hobbesianism seems to be inevitable as a consequence of postmodern disillusionment with the Enlightenment conception of power as a creation of rational consensus.

Analysis, Motivation (Psychology), Emotions, Ethnopsychology, Cross-cultural psychology, Power (Philosophy), Emotions and cognition, Hobbes, Thomas, Lutz, Catherine

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Back to cognitive foundationalism?

Article Abstract:

Robin Horton's work in anthropology on modes of thought falls into the 'intellectualist' camp as opposed to the symbolists. Symbolism and intellectualism have become divergent worldviews with little common ground for discussion. However, Horton's 'cognitive foundationalism,' regarding cognition as the primary function of belief systems, is ethnocentric, reflecting the values of Western culture rather than those of the cultures being studied. Horton also commits a common error by confusing epistemological and anthropological issues.

Anthropology, Culture, Cognition and culture, Horton, Robin

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On going native: Thomas Kuhn and anthropological method

Article Abstract:

Thomas Kuhn's theory of incommensurable paradigms is discussed in relation to cultural anthropology. Topics include the plurality of phenomenal worlds, the resistance of things-in-themselves, exporting Kuhn to anthropology, the paradox of objective relativism, and "going native" as a pragmatic mode of investigation.

United Kingdom, Methods, Ethnology, Ethnological methods, Kuhn, Thomas

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