Culture and Inference: A Trobriand Case Study

Edwin Hutchins

Published by Harvard University Press 1980

Culture and Inference

A Trobriand Case Study

Edwin Hutchins

Volume 2 in the series Cognitive Science Series

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674418660

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book takes a major step in psychological anthropology by applying new analytic tools from cognitive science to one of the oldest and most vexing anthropological problems: the nature of "primitive" thought.

For a decade or more there has been broad agreement within anthropology that culture might be usefully viewed as a system of tacit rules that constrain the meaningful interpretation of events and serve as a guide to action. However, no one has made a serious attempt to write a cultural grammar that would make such rules explicit. In Culture and Inference Edwin Hutchins makes just such an attempt for one enormously instructive case, the Trobriand Islanders' system of land tenure.

Using the propositional network notation developed by Rumeihart and Norman, Hutchins describes native knowledge about land tenure as a set of twelve propositions. Inferences are derived from these propositions by a set of transfer formulas that govern the way in which static knowledge about land tenure can be applied to new disputes. After deriving this descriptive system by extensive observation of the Trobrianders' land courts and by interrogation of litigants, Hutchins provides a test of his grammar by showing how it can be used to simulate decisions in new cases.

What is most interesting about these simulations, generally, is that they require all the same logical operations that arise from a careful analysis of Western thought. Looking closely at "primitive" inference in a natural situation, Hutchins finds that Trobriand reasoning is no more primitive than our own.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Trobriand Land Tenure Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
3. The Model Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
4. Case Analysis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
5. Uses of the Cultural Code Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
6. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Notes. References. Glossary. Index
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 10
- Main content: 143
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 10
- Other: illsutrations
Keywords: Ethnological jurisprudence.; Ethnology -- Papua New Guinea -- Trobriand Islands.; Cognition and culture -- Papua New Guinea -- Trobriand Islands.; Land tenure (Primitive law) -- Papua New Guinea -- Trobriand Islands.; Cross-cultural comparison

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674418660

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1980
ISBN: 9780674418639