Cool article in Newsweek about the emerging field of cultural neuroscience. Researchers are using brainscans to identify the ways people from different cultures process information. Some commonly recognized cultural values are directly reflected in the brain areas people from those cultures use to process different types of information -- recognizing people, concepts of self and group, even doing math.
3 comments:
Mike- I am reading a book I think you'd really enjoy called "On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction" by Brian Boyd (Belknap Pr of Harvard U Pr, 2009). Its main premise is that 'art' is a specifically human adaptation offering tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives from play (itself an adaptation widespread among more intelligent animals). At the heart of it all is 'social cohesion' as the primary human adaptation fostering our survival against both human and non-human predators-- and the book explains culture and art as the adaptive 'glue' for societies.
Laurie
Laurie, just saw this! Sounds fascinating. Maybe I can borrow it from you in June? (or do you get all your books from the library???)
Mike - this is a great article and relevant to the cultural determinants of mindset about which I'll be writing. Thanks also to Laurie. The book by Boyd is directly relevant to a related project I'm doing on the importance of narrative in legal argument and judicial decision-making. Dad / John Delfs
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