The native mind and the cultural construction of nature / Scott Atran and Douglas Medin.
2008
BF311 .A755 2008eb
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Details
Title
The native mind and the cultural construction of nature / Scott Atran and Douglas Medin.
Author
Atran, Scott, 1952-
ISBN
9780262267410 (electronic bk.)
0262267411 (electronic bk.)
9780262134897 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
0262134896 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
9781435631748 (electronic bk.)
1435631749 (electronic bk.)
9786612099373
6612099372
9780262514088 (pbk.)
0262514087 (pbk.)
0262267411 (electronic bk.)
9780262134897 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
0262134896 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
9781435631748 (electronic bk.)
1435631749 (electronic bk.)
9786612099373
6612099372
9780262514088 (pbk.)
0262514087 (pbk.)
Publication Details
Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2008.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (viii, 333 pages) : illustrations.
Item Number
9786612099373
Call Number
BF311 .A755 2008eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
306.4/2
Summary
Surveys show that our growing concern over protecting the environment is accompanied by a diminishing sense of human contact with nature. Many people have little commonsense knowledge about nature - are unable, for example, to identify local plants and trees or describe how these plants and animals interact. Researchers report dwindling knowledge of nature even in smaller, nonindustrialized societies. In The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature, Scott Atran and Douglas Medin trace the cognitive consequences of this loss of knowledge. Drawing on nearly two decades of cross-cultural and developmental research, they examine the relationship between how people think about the natural world and how they act on it and how these two phenomena are affected by cultural differences. These studies, which involve a series of targeted comparisons among cultural groups living in the same environment and engaged in the same activities, reveal critical universal aspects of mind as well as equally critical cultural differences. Atran and Medin find that, despite a base of universal processes, the cultural differences in understandings of nature are associated with significant differences in environmental decision making as well as intergroup conflict and stereotyping stemming from these differences. The book includes two intensive case studies, one focusing on agro-forestry among Maya Indians and Spanish speakers in Mexico and Guatemala and the other on resource conflict between Native-American and European-American fishermen in Wisconsin. The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature offers new perspectives on general theories of human categorization, reasoning, decision making, and cognitive development.
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Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.
Added Author
Medin, Douglas L.
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