Paul Mason: Slides on Neuroanthropology
Posted by gregdowney on January 12, 2008
Paul Mason has sent me PowerPoint slides on Neuroanthropology that draw upon a lot of the same resources that he cited in an earlier post I put up on his behalf. Paul’s in the field in Indonesia, and he writes in sometimes from internet cafes, but we should eventually have him as a regular contributor when he’s back with some regular Internet access. And then he can also tell us more, too, about his own research.
Paul includes a number of choice quotes, but I wanted to make sure that everyone got a chance to see his diagram of a systems-based approach to ‘fight-dancing’ in cultural, biological, and ecological context (in both Indonesia and Brazil). It’s a rich diagram, and I think that we, as neuroanthropologist, will need to do a lot of complex visualization in order to make our points to a broad audience. Paul must get all the credit for this one.
In the meantime, i don’t yet have a complete bibliography on this material, so we’ll have to get in touch with Paul if anyone really wants to get the sources he’s using. He sent this about a month ago, and I was not clear on how to post PowerPoint slides, but I think it’s pretty straightforward. We’ll see….neuroanthropology.ppt
Sylvain Rouanet said
Really interesting powerpoint and quotes.
Could you please, add a bibliography of the authours which are mentionned in this Powerpoint ?
gregdowney said
Sylvain –
I’ll try to get you that. As I’ve mentioned, Paul is in Indonesia doing his fieldwork, so he’s a bit hard to reach. That’s why I’m posting stuff for him. Look back in a little while, and I’ll try to get one for all the readers. There’s some great stuff in there that Paul’s pulled together.
best, greg
Paul Mason said
I apologise for the sketchiness, but For those people interested some interesting references can be found here:
M.J. The Split-Brain and the Culture-Cognition Paradox.
Paredes, J.A. & Hepburn,
Current Anthropology 17, (1976) 320 -322.
More on Split-Brain Research and Anthropology
Colin Martindale, J. Anthony Paredes, Marcus J. Hepburn
Current Anthropology, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Dec., 1976), pp. 738-742
More on Split-Brain Research and Anthropology
Warren D. TenHouten, Charles D. Kaplan, J. Anthony Paredes, Marcus J. Hepburn
Current Anthropology, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Jun., 1977), pp. 344-350
Other papers co-authored by Professor TenHouten may be found in Intern. J. Neuroscience 8:1-6 (1977), 28:125-146 (1985), 30:255-260 (1986); J. Alt. States of Consc. 4(2):129-140 (1978-79); Cur. Anthro. 17(3):503-506 (1976), 18(2):344-346 (1977)
The Spectrum of Ritual: A Biogenetic Structural Analysis
E. d’Aquili, C. D. Laughlin Jr., J. McManus
New York: Columbia University Press, 1979
Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synaesthetes Color their world
Patricia Lynne Duffy
Owl Books 2002
And a couple of links:
http://www.decitre.fr/livres/Paul-Broca.aspx/9782711791385
http://poynter.indiana.edu/publications/m-couser.pdf
And not part of my references, but just a funky little article I found:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dujs/1999S/11_Debate.pdf
Paul Mason said
For citations: The Brain, Culture and Environment (pictured above) diagram has just been published on page 109 of the following article.
Mason, P.H. (2007) Alam, Otak dan Kebudayaan: Perkembangan Baru Tentang Pengetahuan Musik dan Tari. Gema Seni: Jurnal Komunikasi, Informasi, dan Dokumentasi Seni, Vol 2, no. 4, pp. 108-119.
Brain, Dance and Culture « Neuroanthropology said
[...] readers may already be familiar with a diagram that was posted on the neuroanthropology blog Paul Mason: Slides on Neuroanthropology at the beginning of 2008. I also included a black and white version of this diagram on page 109 of [...]
Complete this quote: “In a small, dark room at the lab of a large university hospital…” « Neuroanthropology said
[...] D’Aquili worked with one of the very first neuroanthropologists, Charles Laughlin, on the book “The Spectrum of Ritual” published in 1979 (Laughlin, McManus and d’Aquili). Sadly, D’Aquili died before the publication of Why God Won’t Go Away in 2001. The book , Why God Won’t Go Away, goes some distance towards a neuroethological perspective on religious experiences and ideologies particularly among Tibetan Buddhists and Franciscan Nuns. They describe a neurobiological model that links mystical experience with observable brain function. They talk about an underlying religious urge with a brief discussion of the possible origins of religion that reads like something out of evolutionary psychology (pp 130-140). Through what could be interperted as a Lamarckian account of the origins of religious experience (first arising from mystical insights and then entering the gene-pool), they conclude that humans have a genetically inherited talent for mental states that are associated/interpreted/confused with the presence of a higher spiritual power. Could it be that the historical origins of the institutionalisation of religion may be easier to trace than the evolutionary origins of religiosity? [...]