Consciousness (Anthropology)

Construindo um Conceito de Consciência a partir de António Damásio, Cornelius Castoriadis e Susan Carey

by José Monserrat Neto

Establishing and Measuring Consciousness:

by stanley wilkin

A review of neurological investigations into consciousness and why the apprach is flawed. Weighing up several... more A review of neurological investigations into consciousness and why the apprach is flawed. Weighing up several propositions through current epistemology.

Toward a Multidisciplinary Approach to Ayahuasca Studies

by Steve Beyer

A review of the current state of ayahuasca studies: an introduction to the Special Ayahuasca Issue of the journal... more A review of the current state of ayahuasca studies: an introduction to the Special Ayahuasca Issue of the journal Anthropology of Consciousness

Ayahuasca and the Grotesque Body

by Steve Beyer

Ayahuasca meets Mikhail Bakhtin. Westerners coming to ayahuasca are often seeking what James Hillman called an... more Ayahuasca meets Mikhail Bakhtin. Westerners coming to ayahuasca are often seeking what James Hillman called an "imageless white liberation" -- an insight, an epiphany. What they encounter instead is a ferocious corporeality. In the cultural context of the Upper Amazon, that is what ayahuasca is for.

What Do the Spirits Want from Us?

by Steve Beyer

Shamanism, if nothing else, is a special way of relating to the spirits. The tragic vision of Upper Amazonian... more Shamanism, if nothing else, is a special way of relating to the spirits. The tragic vision of Upper Amazonian shamanism helps teach us the meaning not only of its own ceremonies but also the meaning of vision fasts, talking circles, dreams, and our own encounters with each other.

Perceptual Diversity and its Implications for Development—Based on Research among Traditional Healers and upon Community Use of Traditional Medicine in Namibia, March 1996.

by Tara Waters Lumpkin

Dissertation, The Union Institute, 1996.

The project demonstrating excellence (dissertation) has two parts: (1) an essay developing the theory of... more The project demonstrating excellence (dissertation) has two parts: (1) an essay developing the theory of "perceptual diversity" and focusing on its implications for development, and (2) a case study of Namibian traditional medicine that elucidates this theory.

"Perceptual diversity" is defined as the sum of perceptual modes that humans use to structure experiences. Perceptual-constructs (ways of perceiving reality) allow people to make sense of their experiences and to communicate with others who share these same perceptual-constructs. Recent research in cognitive neuroscience illustrates that experience affects the ordering of neural networks in the brain—known as neural network plasticity—meaning that the micromorphology of the brain is affected by experience and culture. Experiences, thus, become embedded in the mind-body.

Some cultures value transrational perceptual modes, whereas other cultures—usually those represented by strategic elites who have been educated in the West—do not. Using concrete examples and drawing on environmental and medical anthropology, I propose that when a culture restrains perceptual diversity, it—in turn—limits cultural diversity and biodiversity. This concept has a practical application for development: promoting an understanding of perceptual diversity (particularly among strategic elites such as Western-educated government officials, donor agencies, and nongovernmental organizations) will result in improved cross-cultural communication, collaboration, and cooperation that will lead to innovative holistic approaches to development.

The second part of the PDE is an in-depth report and analysis of a research project on Namibian traditional healers and on community use of traditional medicine. The project served as a case study of the need for perceptual diversity in order for collaboration between the modern health sector and traditional healers to be effective. The research consisted of a qualitative survey that gathered data on the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of Namibian traditional healers as well as on community use of traditional medicine. The data was subsequently analyzed and recommendations were made in order to (1) influence Namibian health policy, (2) promote cooperation among traditional healers and biomedical health practitioners, and (3) introduce relevant groups to the need for perceptual diversity in the development process.

Perceptual Diversity: Is Polyphasic Consciousness Necessary for Global Survival? Anthropology of Consciousness, Volume 12, Number 1, March/June 2001.

by Tara Waters Lumpkin

Perceptual diversity allows human beings to access knowledge through a variety of perceptual processes, rather than... more Perceptual diversity allows human beings to access knowledge through a variety of perceptual processes, rather than merely through everyday, waking reality. Many of these perceptual processes are transrational, altered state of consciousness (meditation, trance, dreams, imagination) and are not considered valid processes for accessing knowledge by science (which is based primarily upon quantification, reductionism, and the experimental method). According to Erika Bourguignon’s research in the 1970s, approximately 90% of cultures have institutionalized forms of altered states of consciousness, meaning that such types of consciousness are to be found in most human societies and are “normal” [, 1973 #1019:9-11]. Now, however, transrational consciousness is being devalued in many societies as it is simultaneously being replaced by the monophasic consciousness of “developed” nations. Not only are we are losing (1) biodiversity (biocomplexity) in environments and (2) cultural diversity in societies, we also are losing (3) perceptual diversity in human cognitive processes. All three losses of diversity (bio, cultural, and cognitive) are inter-related.

Cultures that value perceptual diversity are more adaptable than cultures that do not. Perceptually diverse cultures are better able to understand whole systems (because they use a variety of perceptual processes to understand systems) than are cultures that rely only on the scientific method, which dissects systems. They also are better stewards of their environments, because they grasp the value of the whole of biodiversity (biocomplexity) through transrational as well as scientific processes. Understanding through perceptual diversity leads to a higher degree of adaptability and evolutionary competence.

From the perspective of an anthropologist who has worked with development organizations, development will continue to destroy perceptual diversity because it exports the dominant cognitive process of “developed” nations, i.e. monophasic consciousness. Destroying perceptual diversity, in turn, leads to the destruction of cultural diversity and biocomplexity. Drawing from research I conducted among traditional healers in Namibia, I conclude that development organizations need to listen to those who use transrational perceptual processes and also need to find a way to incorporate and validate perceptual diversity in their theoretical and applied frameworks. Key words: perceptual diversity, systems theory, perception, cultural diversity, biodiversity, biocomplexity, Namibia, traditional medicine, ethnomedicine, development.

Adaptive and maladaptive dissociation: An epidemiological and anthropological comparison and proposition for an expanded dissociation model

by Christopher Lynn

Building Consciousness: The Organization Workshop Comes to a Nicaraguan Cooperative

by Josh Fisher

Archaeologies of Consciousness: Essays in Experimental Prehistory

by David Luke

Luke, D. P. (2008). Archaeologies of consciousness: Essays in experimental prehistory, by Gyrus [Book Review]. Time & Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness & Culture, 1 (2), 261-262.

Facing the Dragon: Exploring a conscious phenomenology of intoxication

by Flore Singer Aaslid

Activist Knowledge: Interrogating the Ideational Landscape of Social Movements

by Dr S A Hosseini

International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Volume 5, Issue 5, pp.339-358. Article: Print (Spiral Bound). Article: Electronic

Over the past three decades, there has been a rising concern about the ability of social theories to address the... more Over the past three decades, there has been a rising concern about the ability of social theories to address the idea-construction (ideational) processes in social and political movements. This article argues that in spite of the recent growing emphasis on the cognitive dimension of collective action, many theoretical attempts and the studies influenced by them evidence significant shortcomings in explaining the (trans)formation of ideas and ideologies in social movements. These shortcomings stem from a failure at the metatheoretical level, that is, their failure to hold an integrative and interdisciplinary approach to comprehending the relation between changing social structures, dynamic patterns of experience and the social consciousness of actors. In proposing a solution, the article starts with defining the ideational landscape of social movements by introducing the concept of 'activist knowledge'. Then, it will argue for the necessity of developing an integrative, interdisciplinary, meta-theoretical framework through a radical reconstruction of old metaphors like agency and structure in the light of the recent global changes.

Taxonomic Identity of "Hallucinogenic" Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex californicus) Confirmed

by Kevin Groark

Published 2001 in Journal of Ethnobiology 21(2):133-144

The use of California harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex californicus) for visionary and therapeutic ends was an important... more The use of California harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex californicus) for visionary and therapeutic ends was an important but poorly-documented tradition in native south-central California.  In this brief report, a confirmation of the taxonomic identity of the red ant species used in Califomia is presented, and the descriptive record of its use is supplemented with additional ethnographic accounts.  This taxonomic identification of this species is of particular importance, as visionary red ant ingestion provides the only well-documented case of the widespread use of an insect as an hallucinogenic agent.

"Myth and Mind: The Origin of Consciousness in the Discovery of the Sacred"

by Gregory Nixon

@ *Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research* I (3), April 2010, 289-237.

By accepting that the formal structure of human language is the key to understanding the uniquity of human culture and... more By accepting that the formal structure of human language is the key to understanding the uniquity of human culture and consciousness and by further accepting the late appearance of such language amongst the Cro-Magnon, I am free to focus on the causes that led to such an unprecedented threshold crossing. In the complex of causes that led to human being, I look to scholarship in linguistics, mythology, anthropology, paleontology, and to creation myths themselves for an answer. I conclude that prehumans underwent an existential crisis, i.e., the realisation of certain mortality, that could be borne only by the discovery-creation of the larger realm of symbolic consciousness once experienced as the sacred (but today we know it as the world — as opposed to our immediate natural environment and that of other animals). Thus, although we, the human species, are but one species among innumerable others, we differ in kind, not degree. This quality is our symbolically enabled self-consciousness, the fortress of cultural identity that empowers but also imprisons awareness.