Some Correspondences and Similarities of Shamanism and Cognitive Science: Interconnectedness, Extension of Meaning, and Attribution of Mental States
Anthropology of Consciousness September 1, 2002 Timothy L. Hubbard 12 citations
The paper draws correspondences between shamanism and contemporary cognitive science, focusing on interconnectedness in the web-of-life worldview and connectionist models of semantic memory, as well as the extension of meaning to natural elements in shamanism and distributed cognition. It discusses cognitive consequences like representativeness heuristics, magical thinking, social attribution errors, and in-group/out-group differences. The author suggests that attributing mental states to a computer based on behavioral measures like the Turing test aligns with shamanism's extension of meaning and intentionality to nonhuman elements. Overall, these parallels suggest that shamanic ideas may reflect cognitive structures and processes also used in nonshamanic contexts.