How We Think They Think: Anthropological Approaches To Cognition, Memory, And Literacy

216 Pages·1998·20.44 MB·English

by  Maurice E F Bloch

How We Think They Think
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Ho Think
They Think
Alzthropological Approaches
to Coglzition, Memory,
and Literacy
Westview Press
A Member of 13erseus Books Group
The chapters in this book orginally appeared in slightly different versions in the foltowing lo-
cations:
"X,anguage, Anthropology and Cognitive Science," Man (n.s,), 1991, Vol. 26, No. 2,
pp, 183-1 98, "Wl-rat Goes Witho~ltS aying: The C:onceptualization of Zafimaniry Society," in
Co~zceptzdnlizlrqS ocietjt A. Kuper led.). 1992, L,ondon: Routledge. ""Le Cognitif et Cetlino-
graphiyuc," Grdhditiit, 1995, No. 17, ""lonnain Specihcitjr, Living Kinds and Symbolisrn,"~in
Cog;lrlti~fAes pects of Religtoza Symbolism, I! Boyer (ed.), 1993. Carnbridge: Cambridge Uni-
versiv Press. Reprinted with the permission of Calmbridge Utziversity Press. "Internal and Ex-
ternal Memory: Different Ways of Being in History," "$omert Afz~rapo/ogzf, 992, Vol. 17, No.
l. "The Resurrection of the House Amongst the Zafimaniry of Pvladagascar," h About the
House: Levr Strn2.1a~n~d Beyond J. Carsten and S, Hugh-Jones (eds,). 1995. Carnbridgc: Cam-
bridge University X*ress, Reprinted by permission of Cambridge University Press. C(Tim~M,a r-
ratives and the Multiplicity of fiepresentations of the Past," "dulletin of the Irzsl-it~tteo (Ethtzol-
og35 Academics Sinica, 1993, No. 7.5 (Spring), pp. 29-45.. cX~tobiographicaMl emory and the
Historical Mcrnory of the :More ISistant Past," Enquete, 1996, No. 2, pp. 59-78, (Translation
of the article "MCmoire autobiographiyue et mCmoire hisrorique, . . .''l' %~sotogya nd Writ-
ing in :Madagascar;" in I,iteracy irz Tr~ditioncllS ocieties, J, Goody (ed.). 1968, Cambridge:
Cambricige University 13ress. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press.
""tieracy and Eniightenment," in indireracya lzd Soaetjk M: Trotie-L,arsen and K Soushoe (eds.).
1989. Publications of the C:crztre for Research in the Humatlities. Goperzhagetl: Akadernisk
Forlag. "The Uses of Schooli~zga nd Literacy in a Zafilnaniry Village," in in~~oCssz fltrkral Ap-
prod-ches to Iditerc8c3<13 . Street (eJ.), 1994. Cambridge: Cambridge University I'ress, Reprinted
with the permission of Cambridge University Press. "Why Do -Malagasy Gaws Speak French?"
in Kurzg!, ;the nragaxltze of the LSE Anthropological Socle~f, 9 7 1.
All rights reserved, Printed in the United States of America. MO part of this publication rmay be
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C:spy"ght O 1998 by Westvicw Press, A :Member of Bcrseus Books Group
Published in 1998 in the United States of America by Westview Press, 5500 Central henue,
Boulder, Colorado 80301-2877, and in the United Kingdom by Westview Press, 12 Hid%
Copse Road, C:umnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ
A C:IP catalog recard for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
XSKN 0-81 33-3373-3 (hc), .--- ISBN 0-8233-3374-1 [pb)
The paper used in this publication meets the requirernetlts of the American Matiotlal Standard
for X3ermanence of I'aper for X)ritlted I+ibr;il-yM aterials 239.48-1 984.
POD
ONDEMAND 10 9 8 '7 6 5 cl 3
Contents
PART l
COGNITION
% Language, Ant1,lrapology and Cognitive Science
2 What Goes Without Saying:
The Gomey tuaiiza tion of Zafimaniry Society
3 Cognition and Ethnography
4 Domain-Specificity?L iving Kinds and Symbolism
PART 2
MEMORY
5 Internal and External Memory:
Different Ways of Being in History
C; The Resurrection of the House Amongst the
Zafimaniq of ~Vadagascar
7 Ti~neN, arratives and the Multiplicity of
Representations of the Past
8 Autobiographical Memory and the Historical Memory
of the g more Distant Past
PART 3
LITERACY
F) Astrology and Writing in Madagascar
3 Q Literacy and Enlightenment
11 The Uses of Schooling and Literacy in a
Zafimaniry Village
12 Why do Malagasy Cows Speak Frenchi
Introduction
As the title of this book suggests, the essays gathered here concern issues of
cognition, memory, and literacy as they relate to anthropology. However,
because similar general theoretical questions are addressed throughout, the
division under three headings Xiides a more fundamental unity, Every chap-
ter deals in different ways with what is a central concern: the relation be-
m e n w hat is, on the one hand, explicit and cmscious-that is to say, the
type of informanrs' knoowledge that amhropologists can hope m access eas-
ily-and, on the c-lther hand, what is inexplicit or unconscious, but perhaps
more f~tndamental,
The chapters grouped in the "Cognition" wction continue an argument
that was begun in two earlier articles (Bloch 1977, 1986). These articles
were concerned with the elaboration of a criticism of the proposition that
cuXture and cognition cotild be equated-something that I arg~ledw as im-
plicitly claimed in much anthrctgulogy. Rather, I maintained that what an-
thrupotogists were tdking about when the): claimed to represent a particrr-
lar culture was rlsualfy based only on what was explicit, either because this
was stated by informants or because it could be deduced from what was
acted out in ritual, Such material was irrsuficient to tell us about the rtnder-
standing of the world of the people concerned, Not to differentiate culture
and cognition was misieading, since it presented what were a particular
type of representations as though they were the colfective representations
about which Durktzeim Xiad been taiking-rliat is the very foundation of all
knowledge, the categories of understanding that had for centuries been the
concern af philosophers,
"fhis error was harmful in anorher way also, because the image of culture
so produced grossly exaggerated the impression of cultural variabilit~n ot
to say relativism, that existed in different human populations, This fake
image was consequent on the fact that the building materials used to create
(v
ctlnstructions that were claimed to be ""claiture" were only those state-
ments bp informants that seemed add and therefare interesting to anthro-
pologists and their readers, while, at the same time, orher, more familiar
images were ignored as unworthy of interest; and (2)r epresentations drawn
from ritual cctntexts that are, as is argued in Chapter 4, by their nature
counterinruitive negatiuns of mderstandings of what the world is believed
to be normally like (Boyer 1994). Such selectivity of raw material for creat-
ing accounts of the cultures of different groups of people around the glnhe
could not avoid, because it concentrated on the odd, to exaggerate mislead-
ingly the exotic and diverse character of human knowledge.
A justified criticism of the two earlier articles mentioned above, made by
severat authors and subsequently echoed by myself (Btoch 1989), was that,
although they pointed out the mistake of seeing certain exceptional and
strange cultural manifestations as constitutive of the foundations of all
knowledge, and that, to a certain extent, they also accounted for the atypi-
cal nature and presence of tl-rose manifestations, my early studies nonethe-
less left untheorised what such exceptional ideological representations were
contrasted with: that is, everyday knowledge, This seemed almost taken for
granted as obvious, which it certaidy is not, The purpose of the cognition
chapters of this book is precisely to remedy this omission, ar error, by at-
tempting to discriss why everyday knowledge is, and mst be, inexplicit,
how it is enmeshed in action, and X-row work by cognitive scientists, esge-
cially cognitive psychologists, can help anthropoiogists understand the na-
ture of everyday knowledge and therefore how we can represent it. This is
the aim of Chapter ;L. The chapters entitled ""What Goes Withou Saying"
(Chapter 2) and 'T~ognitiona nd Ethnography" "hapter 3)a re attempts to
appiy the more general and theoretical ideas of the first chapter to a partic-
trlar ethnogapfiic context, that of the Zafinlaniry of Madagascar, whom I
have been studying for more than 20 years,
Chapter 5, which opens the section "iMernory," is different from most of
the others in this book in that instead of arguing h r the need for anthro-
pologists to pay attention to cognitive studies, it calls instead fnr the re-
verse, a recognition of the value of anthropological studies concerned with
notions of the person, in general, and of kinship, in particular, for psycho-
logical work. In the end, however, the general message is the same: Social
scimces and psyciloiogical sciences cannot, and should not, farget what the
others have learnt.
The remaining thee chapters in the section on memory are particularly
closely linked because they rely extensively on ethagraphic data from the
Zafimaniry study and because they deal with the way the awhll events of
1347 are remembered in a small forest village, when, during a terrible but
little-known coIonial war, more than 100,000 people were kilted in Mada-
gascar, The village was burnt down drlring that war. Some of its inhabitants
died, and the rest were forced tc-9 hide in the forest for almost two years,
during which time they endured great hardships, Only recently have the vil-
lagers been willing to taik about these events amongst themselves and with
me. The first chapter concerned with the memory of this period, Chapter 4,
focuses on an account of this time and of the vilfagers?eturn to their vit-
lage, as well as on the return of hope and social reproduction. The accotint
is tc-9ld in a well-rehearsed narrative, recounted on important occasions by
the elders of the village. Chapter 7 also deals with narrative accounts of the
war, but it is also, in many ways, a theoretical Criticism of the earlier essay
from the perspective developed in the cognition chapters in this volume, It
argues that memory of what then happened cannot be equated with any
particular narrative account. The line taken is similar to the much more
general point that culture in general, and historical knowledge in particular,
is a very different phenomenon than that which can be explained in words
and cannot, therefore, be equated with what is explicit. Chapter 8 contirr-
ues the same argument as Chapter n u t g oes on to discuss haw it is possi-
ble for the memory of historical events to be transmitted between gc;.nefa-
tions even without the medium of narratives.
The ""Lteracy'hection opens with Chapter 9, This is a much older essay
than the other papers in this book, but it nonetheless makes a related point,
again with the help of ethnography from Madagascar, In this chapter f ar-
gue that many of tlie more elaborate cultural schemes-such as wri~erals -
trological texts, which have been seen by certain anthropologists as frame-
works of *Malagasy culture-are actually hardly known by ordir~aryp eople.
Xn fact, such schemes, if they are generally known at all, are rrxlderstood
merely as exotica and have power simply because of this fact and not be-
cause they are a fundamental framework for thought, In other words, I ar-
gue that in this case, the effect of literacy has not been to revolutionise the
nature of cognition, as has been argued by some (Goody 19771, but rather
to parenthesise certain forms of knodedge that, therefclre, have only pe-
ripheral effects on the trnderstanding of the world in general. This theme is
taken up again in Chayters 10 and 11. In Chapter 10,I contend that the re-
lationship of writing to language, and then to thought, is difkrent in differ-
ent contexts and also varies according to the technical character of the writ-
ing itself-for example, whether it is phonetic or ideographic. There can
thus not be any general arguments about the effects of the introduction or
presence of "writing" that can apply eqtlalfy to the type of literacy found
in, say, Japan and Europe. Chapter I1 considers the significance, and the
insignificance, of the uses of literacy for present-day Zafimaniry, only some
of whom can read and write, and those only since the 1940s. X t goes on to
show the significance of these arguments fnr the social character of school-
ing in this type of setrir~g.T he book closes with Chapter 12, a short piece
about the uses of French by Malagasy peasants, who deny any knowledge
of that language but wbo nonetheless use it to address their animafs.
References
Bioch, M, 1977. The past and the present in the present, Man n. S, 13: 21-33.
.
1986. From cognition to ideology, In Knswkdge and power: ~nthropolo~qical
and so8olc~gzcca~l apprc~acI7(eesd .) R. Fardon, Edinburgh: Scottish University Press,