Language, Anthropology and cognitive science

Article. — Man, New Series — 1991 — Vol. 26 — No. 2 (Jun.) — pp. 183-198.It is argued in this article that anthropology has relied upon a psychologically misleading and overly linguistic model of culture. Psychological studies show that concepts arc principally formed independently oflanguage. Moreover, studies of expertise show that in order to become an expert at a familiar task or a set of tasks a person needs to organise his or her knowledge in a way which is not language-like. The article draws on the theory of connecrionism to suggest that most cultural knowledge cannot therefore be organised in the sentential logical form characteristic oflanguage. It is suggested that the traditional anthropological method of participant observation enables the cognitive scientist to understand cultural knowledge without the dangerous intermediary of language.