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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
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Searching... | 30000010343885 | QP360.6 E53 2012 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Basic concepts and case studies from an emerging field that investigates human capacities and pathologies at the intersection of brain and culture.
The brain and the nervous system are our most cultural organs. Our nervous system is especially immature at birth, our brain disproportionately small in relation to its adult size and open to cultural sculpting at multiple levels. Recognizing this, the new field of neuroanthropology places the brain at the center of discussions about human nature and culture. Anthropology offers brain science more robust accounts of enculturation to explain observable difference in brain function; neuroscience offers anthropology evidence of neuroplasticity's role in social and cultural dynamics. This book provides a foundational text for neuroanthropology, offering basic concepts and case studies at the intersection of brain and culture.
After an overview of the field and background information on recent research in biology, a series of case studies demonstrate neuroanthropology in practice. Contributors first focus on capabilities and skills-including memory in medical practice, skill acquisition in martial arts, and the role of humor in coping with breast cancer treatment and recovery-then report on problems and pathologies that range from post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans to smoking as a part of college social life.
Contributors
Mauro C. Balieiro, Kathryn Bouskill, Rachel S. Brezis, Benjamin Campbell, Greg Downey, Jose Ernesto dos Santos, William W. Dressler, Erin P. Finley, Agustin Fuentes, M. Cameron Hay, Daniel H. Lende, Katherine C. MacKinnon, Katja Pettinen, Peter G. Stromberg
Author Notes
Daniel H. Lende is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida. Greg Downey is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Macquarie University, Sydney, in 2007 they created the popular Neuroanthropology blog (neuroanthropology. net), which is now part of the Public Library of Science (http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments | p. vii |
I On the Encultured Brain | p. 1 |
1 The Encultured Brain: Development, Case Studies, and Methods | p. 3 |
2 Neuroanthropology and the Encultured Brain | p. 23 |
3 Primate Social Cognition, Human Evolution, and Niche Construction: A Core Context for Neuroanthropology | p. 67 |
4 Evolution and the Brain | p. 103 |
II Case Studies on Human Capacities, Skills, and Variation | p. 139 |
5 Memory and Medicine | p. 141 |
6 Balancing between Cultures: Equilibrium in Capoeira | p. 169 |
7 From Habits of Doing to Habits of Feeling: Skill Acquisition in Taijutsu Practice | p. 195 |
8 Holistic Humor: Coping with Breast Cancer | p. 213 |
9 Embodiment and Male Vitality in Subsistence Societies | p. 237 |
III Case Studies on Human Problems, Pathologies, and Variation | p. 261 |
10 War and Dislocation: A Neuroanthropological Model of Trauma among American Veterans with Combat PTSD | p. 263 |
11 Autism as a Case for Neuroanthropology: Delineating the Role of Theory of Mind in Religious Development | p. 291 |
12 Collective Excitement and Lapse in Agency: Fostering an Appetite for Cigarettes | p. 315 |
13 Addiction and Neuroanthropology | p. 339 |
14 Cultural Consonance, Consciousness, and Depression: Genetic Moderating Effects on the Psychological Mediators of Culture | p. 363 |
IV Conclusion | p. 389 |
15 The Encultured Brain-Toward the Future | p. 391 |
Contributors | p. 421 |
Index | p. 423 |