Neuroanthropology

As hundreds of so-called "psychotherapies" have been foisted onto the public, all claiming to treat "mental illness," newer understandings of how the human brain actually works and the processes which drive the formations of mentation that we refer to as "the mind," demand a reassessment of what exactly we are referring to by the term "mental illness" and what kinds of intervention would be feasible in both the prevention of and recovery from cognitive and behavioral disorder. A fundamental process in the formation of an individual's mentation is the associations of experience. These associations not only account for constructive behavior, but can also lead to deleterious or negative behavior, suggesting that some associations are negative and therefore the negative behavior can be remolded through contrasting positive associations; however, to understand what this really means and how it works, we must start at the beginning and define what exactly is this negative behavior that we refer to by the term "mental illness." One of the most important axioms of life so simply but profoundly phrased by Oscar Wilde, is that "the truth is rarely pure and NEVER simple" (emphasis mine). Nothing can ever be explained by simple sound bites – oversimplification is just another word for misrepresentation – so to understand, we must truly engage the subject, and to engage the subject, we must first and foremost clearly define what it is that we are seeking to understand. In this case, it demands that we understand what exactly is mental illness.

This is the framing document for the presentation “English as Therapy” delivered September 27 to the 2015 NeuroELT Brain Days International Conference, Kyoto, Japan. This presentation introduces CNE (Cognitive Neuroeducation), a new learning-based, noninvasive, nonpharmacological modality for intervention in cognitive and behavioral disorder with the promise of full recovery therefrom. CNE is unique in that it is the only modality in the fields of learning and mental health that is strictly tied to how the brain actually works within a tightly constructed, exhaustively comprehensive model of the mind as formed exclusively from rigorous hermeneutic and phenomenological analysis.

Humans – through the biological determinants of evolutionary selection – have developed a uniquely social brain. In the human social brain, learning is the principal mechanism that shapes all behavior, and language is the medium through which learning takes place and cognition is formed. Cognition is the understanding of ourselves, others and the world around us. But the processes of cognitive development – that is, how we learn, what we learn, how we understand the world around us, and, consequently, how we are molded to behave – can be blocked or can become distorted.

In this presentation we explore the processes in the human social brain by which learning is realized and cognition and behavior are shaped, and the principles of CNE that can be applied, both in the classroom and in a remedial setting, to stimulate these processes in engendering positive learning realization and self-affirming, socially adaptable behavior.

This chapter presents ethnographic and social neuroscientific insights on the emerging subculture of juicing: an extreme eating practice grounded in food beliefs about purity and pollution enacted through a set of highly prescriptive rituals to ‘flush’ out undesirable substances and achieve ‘cleansing’. Drawing on our ethnographic evidence and recent work in cognitive anthropology, the philosophy of psychiatry, and social neuroscience, we argue that the positive results achieved by juicers are largely attributable to the prosocial rewards of constructing a juicer identity reinforced in ritual, and to implicit sociocognitive substrates of the placebo effects. The cult-like dimensions of juicing culture, in turn, presents us with a fascinating window for the study of emergent sociality and its physiological effects, and, by extension, for the theoretical and empirical study of embodiment in cultural epidemiology

Over the past several years, a growing number of social scientists studying addiction have begun paying attention to materiality, embodiment, and biology in potentially novel ways.  In this this chapter, I ask what it means, concretely, for social scientists to think seriously about materiality and biology while remaining ambivalent toward prevailing notions of addiction as brain disease. In the first part of this chapter, I examine the brain–disease model of addiction as an epistemic object, tracing its emergence from a particular scientific style of reasoning and examining some of its key social effects. In the remainder of the chapter, I briefly review the social science of addiction literature associated with four conceptual frameworks, which I suggest highlight domains and mechanisms of biosocial entanglement – and are thus particularly fruitful as potential sites of conversation between social scientists and bioscientists. These frameworks are: (1) embodied sensations; (2) will and habit; (3) social and material milieu; and (4) trajectories.

Course syllabus for a second-year course in psychological anthropology with a general student base (many psychology majors, but also a wide variety). Draws on my own interest in phenomenology, neuroanthropology, anthropology of the senses, and skill acquisition.

Dissociation refers to partitioning of conscious awareness, a psychocultural phenomena that has long been of interest to anthropologists. Clinicians diagnostically distinguish dissociation types for treatment and financial-juridical reasons. Classification as malingering (fraudulent), factitious (feigned or exaggerated), or iatrogenic (healer-induced) disorder determine the type of treatment or legal disposition. These same classifications can also be used as a lens to view culturally relative dissociation, though implications differ. In this paper, I discuss an incident of Pentecostal iatrogenic dissociation as a model for understanding the socialization of culturally relevant dissociation. This incident was observed in the course of ethnographic study among an Apostolic Pentecostal congregation in upstate New York. It involved the singling out of a woman judged to have “the wrong Holy Ghost” who was inappropriately „laying hands‟ on her husband, a „backslider‟ having his demons exorcised. The case provides a point of departure for discussing the socialization of Pentecostal „gifts of the Spirit.‟ I examine how the brethren „discerned‟ the couple‟s iatrogenic and backslider statuses, both emicly considered demonic, and the transitional nature of these statuses in the negotiation of this religio-cultural trance complex. As Pentecostalism was the most successful Christian religion of the 20th century, investigating the dramaturgical performance of Pentecostal gifts is important in elucidating how individuals obtain the benefits of in-group status through embodied practice. Additionally, I outline why it is important to consider factitious, malingering, and iatrogenic dissociation as junctions of psychocultural liminality.

This chapter sketches the outline of a cultural neurophenomenology of sociality – the tendency to form cooperative groups and experience shared ways of being and representing experience. I introduce the notion of interphenomenality to describe the sensory, ‘what it feels like’ aspects of lived experience for humans who come to develop similar ways of feeling and narrativizing their Selves. In doing so, I argue that personhood is shaped, induced, and automaticized in ontogeny through selective processes of joint-attention that are best described as hypnotic.  I discuss the emerging culture of tulpamancy as a case in point to theorize these mechanisms. Tulpas, a term borrowed from Tibetan Buddhism, are sentient imaginary companions conjured through ‘thoughtform’ meditative practice.
Tulpamancy, I argue, sheds light on fundamentally human cultural-neurophenomenal mechanisms through which transient, hypnotic, asymmetrically collective, but somatically grounded experiences of personhood invariably arise – and can be altered!

Forthcoming in Amir Raz and Michael Lifshitz (in press) Hypnosis and meditation: Towards an integrative science of conscious planes. Oxford University Press.

The influence of glossolalia or “speaking in tongues” on biological stress and arousal is examined in a sample of Apostolic Pentecostals. Glossolalia is a form of dissociation considered by Pentecostals as possession by the Holy Spirit. Dissociation is a psychological term for partitioning of awareness and widely held to moderate stress, yet this has been difficult to affirm in culturally-embedded situations. We sought to determine if glossolalic dissociation is associated with biomarkers of stress and arousal (salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase, respectively) on a religious service and a non-service day among 52 participants. We used mixed qualitative and quantitative methods to group participants as high- and low-glossolalists for preliminary comparisons and by status within their respective churches for regression analyses. Results indicate a significant influence of two glossolalia indicators on cortisol and alpha-amylase on both days, in addition to a statistically significant though not robust interaction effect between lifetime glossolalia experience and church status on the non-service day. Combined, these data suggest glossolalia experience is associated with increased physiological stress during worship and reduced stress and arousal beyond the worship context.

In this interview, Michael Winkelman and Martin Fortier discuss the extent to which consciousness is grounded in deep evolutionary mechanisms and can be enculturated. First, the main tenets of two neuroanthropological approaches to consciousness and culture are outlined. Next, the upsides and downsides of evolutionary psychology are examined; the fruitfulness of this approach in the study of cultural phenomena such as shamanism is debated. The authors then discuss the promises of the "big data" approach to the study of religion as well as evolutionary puzzles about religion. Turning to issues bearing on the taxonomy of consciousness, the interview explores how consciousness should be individuated and especially how many "modes" of consciousness should be identified based on what we know of the biology and phenomenology of altered consciousness. Winkelman's concepts of the "integrative mode of consciousness" and "psychointegrators" are subsequently examined. Next, the interview addresses both how alterations of consciousness are universally similar (the perennialist view) and can also be enculturated (the constructivist view). Finally, the authors discuss issues around the cultural use of hallucinogens (a.k.a. visionary plants): what is the best method to study them? And for how long have humans used them?

keywords: altered states of consciousness, enculturation, evolutionary neuroanthropology, hallucinogens, shamanism.

Hallucinations possess two main components: (i) a sensory content; and (ii) a sense that the sensory content is real. Influential models of schizophrenic hallucination claim that both the sensory content and the sense of reality can be explained in terms of metacognitive dysfunction. This chapter assesses whether such a claim holds for schizophrenic and drug-induced hallucinations; it further attempts to determine the actual role of metacognition in hallucination and how this role is liable to vary across cultures. It is first argued that the notion of sense of reality is heterogeneous and should therefore be divided into distinct kinds. Next, some monitoring-based models of hallucination are presented. After having briefly distinguished between different levels of metacognitive processing, I show that these monitoring-based models are metacognitive only to a limited extent and that they fail to explain important aspects of the content and sense of reality of hallucinations. I subsequently suggest that the main mechanisms of serotoninergic-hallucinogens are not metacognitive whereas those of anticholinergic-hallucinogens importantly tap into subpersonal metacognitive processes. Looking specifically at the use of ayahuasca across different Amazonian indigenous groups, I put forward the idea that the metacognitive properties of hallucinogenic experiences can be variously exploited or ignored depending on cultural expectations. Finally, I examine how anthropological and linguistic evidence of the ritualized use of hallucinogens supports the existence of multiple metacognitive norms in religion.

The purpose of the following paper is to examine a hard and scarcely discussed topic, fetal conditioning and rituals of the prenatal development, first from the western perspective of advanced research in fetal psychology and clinical treatment using fetal conditioning, and then from a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective. The second section, the more emphasized one, attempts to shed light on the symbols and archetypes of the fetus as they emerge from various traditional ancient and still existing cultures as well as New Age religious customs and rituals associated with prenatal development, a special and quite interesting issue.

Ces dernières décennies ont vu l’émergence d’un vaste programme d’étude scientifique de la conscience. Désireux d’élargir et d’approfondir ce programme, le présent article insiste sur l’importance de la diversité des états dont la conscience est capable à travers les âges de la vie, les cultures, les activités quotidiennes, les pathologies et les manipulations pharmacologiques. De nombreux psychologues et neuroscientifiques ont récemment reconnu que leurs recherches avaient jusque-là porté pas tant sur la cognition humaine que sur la cognition de quelques échantillons d’humains particulièrement bizarres et peu représentatifs. Reprenant à mon compte cet argument et l’appliquant au domaine de la conscience, je soutiens ici que l’étude scientifique de la conscience devrait être radicalement élargie en sorte de ne plus être cantonnée à l’étude de quelques états de conscience peu représentatifs. Si l’étude approfondie des états modifiés de conscience (EMCs) promet aux sciences de la conscience des avancées considérables, il convient toutefois de souligner les limites – doublement conceptuelles et empiriques – dont la notion d’EMC a pu souffrir par le passé. Après avoir présenté quelques modélisations classiques des EMCs, et avoir identifié leurs faiblesses et incohérences, je me propose d’introduire plusieurs modélisations récentes, issues notamment de la neurologie, de la neuropsychiatrie, de la neuropsychologie, et des neurosciences computationnelles, puis de montrer comment ces nouveaux modèles multidimensionnels de la conscience permettent de redéfinir la notion d’EMC de manière tout à fait satisfaisante. M’appuyant sur ces modèles novateurs, j’esquisse dans la dernière partie de l’article, sous la forme d’un manifeste, un programme d’étude systématique de la conscience qui se montrerait capable de rendre compte de la diversité des EMCs tout à la fois à un niveau phénoménologique, physiologique et étiologique.

The attempt to answer the question of cultural continuity and discontinuity has been, and continues to be, the principal driving force in the archaeology of Anatolia. On a wider scale, the concern with defining cultural boundaries has been no less a central issue in the archaeology of the Ancient Near East. The question of cultural boundaries goes to the very heart of understanding and interpreting Anatolian and other Ancient Near East sites from a historical view. This, however, begs two essential questions: 1) is the historical view the proper view for archaeology? and 2) is the historical view credible, even to the objectives of historical scholarship? While these questions may seem ridiculous and completely unwarranted, or heretical, I will endeavor to demonstrate that a reassessment of these
basic issues is critical.

Le loup-garou : de sa liminalité dans le patrimoine narratif gallo-roman à sa parenté neuroanthropologique Fabio Armand reste jusqu'à présent irremplacé pour aider à l'analyse de la complexité de ces récits, dans notre cas à la compréhension des différentes figures du loup-garou dans notre domaine. Mieux, il est un passage obligé pour tester comment les narrations traditionnelles dans le domaine gallo-roman retenu, peuvent être reliées à des croyances présentes dans d'autres cultures du monde. Rien n'empêche en effet d'éviter le polythétisme (une comparaison de proche en proche où le terminus a quo et le terminus ad quem peuvent avoir une intersection vide) sur lequel buttent les comparaisons anthropologiques, en recourant, via cette immense documentation, à la recherche d'homologies, non pas au sens simplement logique du structuralisme, mais au sens biologique, ici plus exactement neurologique dans le cadre d'une anthropologie neurocognitive.

Final version of this draft now available at https://rdcu.be/bfWNE.

Although the Catholic Church has never made an explicit claim like that of Reinhold Niebuhr to the effect that Jesus’ ethical teachings are irrelevant in public affairs, centuries of appealing exclusively to natural-law principles in matters of war and peace constituted a functional equivalent. What then are we to make of Pope Francis’s claim in his 2017 World Day of Peace message not only that nonviolence should be our “style of politics,” but that the Sermon on the Mount should serve as the Church’s “manual” for peacemaking at every level, including domestic policy formation and international diplomacy? The late Glen Stassen’s well-received exegesis of Jesus’ sermon, as organized around a series of fourteen triads (not dyads or antitheses), points to a way of receiving and developing Francis’ teaching. What at first may seem like a technical matter of literary analysis shows Jesus not to be providing impossibly “hard sayings,” but pointing the way to escape our vicious cycles through practicable transforming initiatives. Mimetic theory as developed both by classical social psychology (G.H. Mead) and the emerging field of neuroanthropology (Merlin Donald et al.) suggests the potential of transforming initiatives to change social dynamics and counters the Niebuhrian assumption that enemy-love is necessarily politically irrelevant. The ten verifiably realistic “normative practices” that Stassen and others highlight in just-peacemaking theory all draw upon these dynamics in various ways.

When the science of paleoanthropology first emerged circa 1856, with the discovery of Neandertal 1, it held considerable promise in unraveling the mystery of human origins. Based on the biological and earth sciences (zoology and geology initially, later incorporating paleontology and paleoecology, as these fields of study developed) and subsuming anthropological theories of human social and cultural evolution, it offered a scientific, systematic approach to an area of research that was often besieged by highly subjective emotionality and political posturing. Although in the intervening one and a half centuries we have made enormous strides in understanding much of the increasingly complex picture of hominid fossil remains, we have, in many ways, failed to live up to that initial promise. This paper directly addresses some of the problems in the current practice of paleoanthropology that are implicated in this failure.

There are three primary problems that have prevented paleoanthropology from reaching its full potential. The first problem is a most fundamental one; the lack of basic operational definitions. While the science of paleoanthropology is concerned with unraveling human origins, and mapping out human evolution in time-sequenced phylogenic relationships, after a century and a half we have no solid, fully agreed upon definition of what is human. We do not even have any concurrence on the organization of our own taxonomic family; in the classification of living hominoids, we can’t agree if we are the single binomial in the tribe Hominini, one of two binomials of the tribe Hominini, the single binomial in the subfamily Homininae, or the single binomial in the family Hominidae — for fossil groups it gets dramatically more contentious. It begs the question, how can we even begin to classify fossil finds when we can’t define 1) what uniquely identifies the genus Homo, and 2) how we are related to our closest cladistic brethren?

This first problem leads directly into the second problem: classification of fossil finds as personal promotion. One of the principal reasons that there is such lack of agreement on basic operational definitions is that individual researchers simply do not want to give up the murkiness of fossil classification that enables the researchers to make claims to the unique status of a fossil discovery, paving the way to recognition, advancement, and in some cases, fame and celebrity status. As J. S. Jones has so aptly stated, “. . . this [paleoanthropology] must now be the only science in which it is still possible to become famous just by having an opinion” (as cited in Howells 1993, 78). It will be shown that the desire for personal gain is not the least of the reasons why paleoanthropology has failed to fully meet its responsibilities as a science.

The third problem is one of focus. Paleoanthropology has been so obsessed with finding the “missing link” and tracing back the origins of humankind, that it is blinded by a narrow and false orientation toward the fossil record, an orientation that places us, Homo sapiens sapiens, at the pinnacle of evolution. In spite of the fact that such a view has long been discredited in Darwinian and Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory, this orientation has influenced both methodology and interpretation to a significant degree and is a direct source of much of the confusion and contention that prevails in paleoanthropology.

The reason for the prevalence of this orientation lies in the fact that the public at large generally maintains this view, primarily through a misunderstanding of evolutionary theory. To make a researcher’s fossil finds revolutionary and exciting to the world at large, paleoanthropologists have traded on this public view as an avenue of self-promotion. This paper explores the problems in paleoanthropology, and suggests a different emphasis in research as a basis of resolution.

This paper is a slightly updated version of the original 1998 paper, adding a reference to the Wood and Collard study of 1999.

References
Howells, William. 1993. Getting here: The story of human evolution. Washington: The Compass Press.

Wood, Bernard, and Mark Collard. 1999. The human genus. Science 284 (2 April): 65-71.

[[[[[FR]]]]]
Les expériences hallucinogènes déterminent-elles certains contenus culturels ou est-ce au contraire la culture qui détermine le contenu des expériences hallucinogènes ? Certains auteurs ont défendu la thèse d’un déterminisme neuropharmacologique. D’autres ont soutenu la thèse d’un déterminisme culturel. L’une et l’autre de ces thèses souffrent d’une double faiblesse : elles se fondent sur un nombre fort restreint de cas ethnographiques (absence de comparatisme anthropologique) ; elles se fondent sur l’analyse d’un nombre limité de substances (absence de comparatisme neuropharmacologique). J’argue ici en faveur d’une tierce position : celle d’un déterminisme neuropharmacologique faible et pluriel. Après avoir distingué entre différentes classes d’hallucinogènes, et identifié leurs mécanismes d’action et leur effets psychologiques respectifs, j’examine la manière dont les rituels se trouvent distinctement façonnés par les déterminismes neuropharmacologiques. Les rituels à datura (hallucinogène anticholinergique) d’Amérique du Nord sont ainsi comparés aux rituels à ayahuasca (hallucinogène sérotoninergique) d’Amazonie, puis aux rituels impliquant doublement un anticholinergique et un sérotoninergique du groupe jivaro de la Montaña. En conclusion, il est démontré que facteurs culturels et neuropharmacologiques, loin d’être forcément compétitifs, s’avèrent souvent être synergiques.
Most clés : Amériques ; ethnopharmacologie ; hallucinogènes anticholinergiques ; hallucinogènes sérotoninergiques ; neuroanthropologie ; rituel

[[[[[ENG]]]]]
Do hallucinogenic experiences determine cultural contents, or alternatively, does culture determine the contents of hallucinogenic experiences? Some authors have championed the neuropharmacological determinism thesis while others have endorsed the cultural determinism thesis. Both theses have important weaknesses: they are based on the study of a restricted number of ethnographic cases (anthropological comparativism is missing) and they are based on the study of a restricted number of hallucinogenic substances (neuropharmacological comparativism is missing). I will champion a third position: weak and plural neuropharmacological determinism. After having identified different classes of hallucinogens and pinpointed their mechanisms of action and their respective psychological effects, I examine the way rituals are distinctively shaped by neuropharmacological determinisms. Datura-based rituals (i.e., anticholinergic rituals) of North American are thus compared to ayahuasca-based rituals (i.e., serotoninergic rituals) of Amazonia, and subsequently compared to Jivaro rituals of the Montaña involving the use of both anticholinergic and serotoninergic hallucinogens. In conclusion, it is shown that far from being always competitive, cultural and neuropharmacological factors often prove synergetic.

Keywords : Americas ; anticholinergic hallucinogens ; ethnopharmacology ; neuroanthropology ; ritual ; serotoninergic hallucinogens

Abstrakt

Celem tego artykułu jest porównanie dwóch ujęć kategorii interpretacji, z którymi mamy do czynienia w ramach dwóch programów badawczych: antropologii semiotycznej Clifforda Geertza i neuroantropologii, która jest rodziną transdyscyplinarnych teorii (tj. teorii posiadających wyraźny rdzeń założeń). Ujmując przedmiot neuroantropologii w najwyższym skrócie, powiedzieć należy, że zawiera się on w badaniu dwustronnych związków pomiędzy kulturą a mózgiem. Wiele z założeń na których opiera się antropologia Geertza jest charakterystycznych także dla neuroantropologii, jednak część z nich została w podejściu neuroantropologicznym zmodyfikowana lub odrzucona i zastąpiona innymi. W podsumowaniu pokażę, że w ramach neuroantropologii dochodzi do swoistej konsolidacji trzech programów badawczych: antropologii interpretacyjno-symbolicznej, antropologii kognitywnej i neurokognitywistyki. Pokażę także, że na Clifforda Geertza spojrzeć można podobnie jak na Victora Turnera jako na prekursora neurantropologii.

Summary

The aim of this paper is to compare two approaches to the category of interpretation which we can find within two research programs: Clifford Geertz's semiotic anthropology and neuroanthropology, the latter being a family of transdisciplinary theories (theories comprising a well-defined core of assumptions). In short, the subject matter of neuroanthropology is enclosed within the inquiry of reciprocal relations between culture and brain. A number of assumptions of Geertz's anthropology is being distinctive also to neuroanthropology although it had to modify or even reject some of them and replace with different ones. In the résumé I will indicate that in the frame of neuroanthropology three component research programs are being combined: interpretive-symbolic anthropology, cognitive anthropology and neurocognitive science. I will also show that Clifford Geertz along with Victor Turner can be seen as the forerunner of neuroanthropology.

The object of this paper, which ranges over subjects such as law, neuroscience, mirror neurons, modularism and language, is the study of the evolutionary origin of law. This is a question at the margins of the more general field of neurolaw, already prominent at the international level but still confined, in Italy, to niche legal elaborations.

One can search anthropological studies of education for references to physical education long and hard without finding many. In spite of its invisibility, physical education—sports, games, dance, drills, and other bodily activities—is pervasive cross-culturally, not only in formal schooling, but also in training of all sorts, such as religious orders, military indoctrination, and social initiation. Many factors likely contribute to the invisibility, but socio-cultural anthropologists often seem to neglect bodily variability because they fear that even to entertain discussions of physiology invites biological determinism. Whatever the reasons for the neglect, the effects are detrimental to socio-cultural anthropology, to theorizing embodiment, to applying our discipline to education and human development, and to engaging in public debates about the variability of human physiology (cf. Downey 2005a).

Variations in finger and palmar dermatoglyphic patterns are investigated among the Limboo (18-60 years, 150 males and 150 females), a little known population of Sikkim. The results for Limboo were compared with other North-East Indian populations. The most commonly occurring pattern was loop (males: 64.33%; females: 75.00%) followed by whorl (males: 31.00%; females: 21.33%) and finally arch (males: 4.67%; females: 3.66%). There were no significant differences between sexes in pattern types. The overall values of pattern intensity (P.I.I.), Dankmeijer's (D.I.) and Furuhata's (F.I.) indices were 14.08, 12.60 and 96.06 respectively. The P.I.I. was within the range for East Asian populations of North-East India. The D.I. was similar to those reported for Rajbanshi, Kalita, Rabha and Newar populations, while F.I. was higher than in other populations of Eastern Himalaya and North-East India. The most frequently occurring mainline formulae in all palm prints (left and right combined) were 7.5'.5.-followed by 9.7.5.-and finally 11.9.7.-(p > 0.05) and these were similar to the reported values for other Northeastern populations of India. The mean values of total finger ridge count (TFRC) and absolute finger ridge count (AFRC) were greater among males (138.03; s = 42.26 and 198.78; s = 77.4) than females (137.91; s = 44.15 and 194.47; s = 86.71). The a-b ridge count was greater among females than males. Sex differences in AFRC and a-b ridge count were both statistically significant (p < 0.05). The mean TFRC values were within ranges for populations of North-East India.

The concept of "poverty poisons the brain" has become a major area of research in neuroscience and the health sciences, and an increasingly utilized metaphor to argue for the importance of addressing inequality and poverty in the United States. This article systematically presents the research behind poverty poisons the brain, which includes the impact of socioeconomic status on human development, the developmental models used to understand how poverty impacts children, and the proximate social factors and brain mechanisms that represent the core causal model behind this research. This overview examines the uses of this research for neuroanthropology, highlighting the impact of inequality and how experience becomes embodied. Nevertheless, a simplistic cause-effect approach and the reduction of the social to the biological often hamper this type of research. A critical approach to how poverty poisons the brain provides the basis for making the shift to a more robust neuroanthropological approach to poverty. Neuroanthropology can utilize social embodiment, the dynamics of stress, and the production of inequality to transform research on poverty and children, and to make policy recommendations, do applied research, and craft and test interventions to deal with the pernicious impact of poverty. [poverty, human development, stress, inequality, critical theory] In February 2008, Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate economist and New York Times columnist, wrote an op-ed entitled, "Poverty Is Poison." He summarized research presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference by Martha Farah, a University of Pennsylvania neuroscientist, and her colleagues. These data showed that "unhealthy" levels of stress hormones in poor children can harm neural development. Krugman then argued:

In Flourish, the positive psychologist Martin Seligman (2011) identifies five commonly recognized factors that are characteristic of human flourishing or wellbeing: (1) “positive emotion,” (2) “relationships,” (3) “engagement,” (4) “achievement,” and (5) “meaning” (p. 24). Although there is no settled set of necessary and sufficient conditions neatly circumscribing the bounds of human flourishing (Seligman, 2011), we would mostly likely consider a person that possessed high levels of these five factors as paradigmatic or prototypical of human flourishing. Accordingly, if we wanted to go about the practical task of actually increasing our level of wellbeing, we ought to do so by focusing on practically increasing the levels of the five factors that are characteristic of wellbeing. If, for instance, an activity such as musical engagement can be shown to positively influence each or all of these five factors, this would be compelling evidence that an activity such as musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. I’m of the belief that psychological research can and should be used, not only to identify and diagnose maladaptive psychological states, but identify and promote adaptive psychological states as well. In this article I advance the hypothesis and provide supporting evidence for the claim that musical engagement can positively contribute to one’s living a flourishing life. Since there has not yet been a substantive and up-to-date investigation of the possible role of music in contributing to one’s living a flourishing life, the purpose of this article is to conduct this investigation, thereby bridging the gap and stimulating discussion between the psychology of music and the psychology of wellbeing.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00393
https://doctorcroom.com/croom-2012b

While the comparative study of the use of hallucinogens in different cultures has led
many observers to defend a culturalist approach to the psychedelic experience, the vectors by which the phenomenological features of hallucinations are shaped by social factors have so far been little explored. Based on the data collected during an ethnographic survey conducted in the Upper Peruvian Amazon, we recently proposed some initial avenues to shed anthropological light on the underpinnings of this dynamic, which we proposed to refer to as the “socialization of hallucinations”.
This article  explore the neurocognitive implications of these ethnographic observations and this anthropological model. This is a first attempt to evaluate what the neuroanthropological approach can bring to the understanding of the hallucinatory phenomenon and the psychedelic experience.

Within an investigation of some of the most relevant historical-juridical themes of the Greek world, this paper deals with an analysis of specific aspects connected to the complex relationship existing between the right of Citizenship in Classical Athens and the political-religious participation in the polis guaranteed by the right of Ownership of Land. After a brief socio-economic overview of Athenian everyday life, it is here attempted to approach the important issue of real securities, a significant capital creation mechanism which, notwithstanding their key role within the polis commercial economy, was unavailable to metics. In this light, the nature of security horoi is reinterpreted with special regard to the deep social and sacred reasons which facilitated and sustained their development and spread.

Venezuela) conceive of power in terms of knowledge derived from visionary experiences. Miinpa is an epistemology concerning the translation ofknowledge derived from theintegrative modeof consciousness, induced primarily through the consumption of plant hallucinogens, to practical effect during waking life. I integrate mythological, neurobiological, experiential, and ethnographic data to demonstrate what miiripa is, and how it functions.The theory and method of miiripa underlie not only Piaroa shamanic activity, but all aspects of Piaroa life; mythology, causality, eschatology, and history. Piaroa shamanic practicesinvolveconditioningthe mindtoachieveoptimal perceptual capacities that facilitate accurate prediction and successful psycho-social prescription. Piaroa shamans describe their technologies of consciousness in termsofgodsandspirits, but also in termsoPstudying'and the acquisition of information. Because neurobiological processes underlie thedevelopment and experience of miiripa, the language of neurobiology enables apartial translation of this indigenous epistemology.The concepts of feedforward neural processing and somatic markersare central to the processes of mental imagery cultivation that Piaroa shamans employ to divine solutions to Anthropology of L'onscwusnta 14(2):M)S8.

Incorporating new insights from the neuroscience of learning and the role of language in cognition, CNE is an approach to optimizing positive learning outcomes in the enhancement of cognitive processes through a new understanding of the brain-mind-behavior connection. CNE is directly applicable to both education and mental health and is the only modality in either field that is strictly tied to how the brain actually works within a tightly constructed, exhaustively comprehensive model of the mind as formed exclusively from rigorous hermeneutic and phenomenological analysis.

Starting with a model of human behavior based on the evolution of the human brain, we describe how a new understanding of the brain-mind-behavior connection leads to both innovation in the classroom and the basis for a breakthrough modality in the recovery from cognitive and behavioral disorder.

We outline the perspective of ‘critical neuroscience’: a stance of informed critique pertaining to neuroscientific methods, practices, concepts, discursive effects, formative backstories, and societal impacts. Critical neuroscience brings together work from various vantage points with the aim to engage neuroscience practitioners as well as decision makers, stakeholders and the public to convince them of the feasibility of a vigilant critical stance towards the entirety of the ‘Neuro complex’, including its impacts on scholarship, academia and wider society. The text is a programmatic outline which traces major lines of influence and theoretical backgrounds and sketches working examples. It is an invitation to neuroscientists and critical scholars from different fields to engage in collaborative reflection on the present and future of human neuroscience in its varied and dynamic socio-cultural surroundings. The chapter is a revised and updated version of chapter 1 of our volume Critical Neuroscience: A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience (Wiley-Blackwell 2012).

The peripheral vision of our ancestors was both wider and more well-defined than ours today.  Traces the emergence of quantum data (natural mathematics and curve paths) that help to appreciate our Senses as a Perceptual System as derived from the work of Rudolf Steiner, Gorden Adams, Edward Lawrence, James J. Gibson, Sir Terence Edward Cawthorne and Paul Bach-y-Rita.  Takes us from the San (Bushmen) in the Kalihari desert -- who could spot the moons of Jupiter with the naked eye (meaning they could see nearly five times as many stars as we can) with atmospheric light scatter pollution rectified)  to fighter pilot visual acuity tests at the USAF Academy to NCAA Baseball Batters targeting curve balls.  Visual depth and definition show indigenous people certainly saw the sky (and their surroundings) in a different way and with a magnitude that is often only approached today by people in unique life circumstances -- such as professional athletes, people compensating due to exceptionality/altered-abilities or the result of PTS/complex trauma.

see: https://www.academia.edu/10349337/Blind_Surfers_Champions_of_Interoception_Balance_and_Symmetry

In this chapter, we highlight the importance of primate studies to anthropology and the neurosciences, and provide examples from current work that demonstrate how such research can inform the integrative and interdisciplinary foci at the core of neuroanthropology.

In this article, we argue that a combined anthropology/neuroscience field of enquiry can make a significant and distinctive contribution to the study of the relationship between culture and the brain. This field, which can appropriately be termed as neuroanthropology, is conceived of as being complementary to and mutually informative with social and cultural neuroscience. We start by providing an introduction to the culture concept in anthropology. We then present a detailed characterization of neuroanthropology and its methods and how they relate to the anthropological understanding of culture. The field is described as a humanistic science, that is, a field of enquiry founded on the perceived epistemological and methodological interdependence of science and the humanities. We also provide examples that illustrate the proposed methodological model for neuroanthropology. We conclude with a discussion about specific contributions the field can make to the study of the culture-brain nexus.

Anthropologists have not participated extensively in the cognitive science synthesis for a host of reasons, including internal conflicts in the discipline and profound reservations about the ways that cultural differences have been modeled in psychology, neuroscience, and other contributors to cognitive science. This paper proposes a skills-based model for culture that overcomes some of the problems inherent in the treatment of culture as shared information. Athletes offer excellent cases studies for how skill acquisition, like enculturation, affects the human nervous system. In addition, cultural differences in playing styles of the same sport, such as distinctive ways of playing rugby, demonstrate how varying solution strategies to similar athletic problems produce distinctive skill profiles.

Ayant enquêté auprès de plusieurs jhākri/chamans de l'Himalaya népalais, nous avons pu explorer leur espace liminal, cet « entre-deux » qui sépare le monde des morts de celui des vivants. En cherchant à reconstituer la complexité des rapports entre pratiques rituelles et pratiques narratives des systèmes de croyance hindoue, nous avons considéré ce limen comme un lieu de passage, aux frontières fluides, pour des ontologies surnaturelles et des êtres humains aux pouvoirs exceptionnels, en l'occurrence ces jhākri népalais. A partir des données ethnographiques concernant le rituel d'incorporation au cours duquel ces chamans himalayens peuvent fusionner avec leur esprit tutélaire, nous avons développé un modèle en nous basant sur une propriété du cerveau confirmée depuis la Gestalt : sa bistabilité cognitive enactive. L'incorporation, qui prend place en phase liminale, se déroule bien selon un cycle bistable, avec une alternance constante de deux expressions formelles, métemmorphoses, chacune potentiellement stable en mode fusionnel ou ségrégationnel. C'est là selon nous que réside tout le « secret » du succès de telles conceptions métemphysiques autour de la métemsomatose, hypertrophiée chez le jhākri passeur intra mundi en mode bistable.

Our recent investigations among several jhākri/shamans from the Nepal Himalaya allowed us to identify a liminal « in-between » space, separating the world of the dead from the living one. From the relationship between ritual practices and narratives in Hindu beliefs, we can consider this limen, with fluid boundaries, as a crossing point for different supernatural ontologies and for a few human beings with exceptional powers, Nepalese jhākris. To cope with the ethnographic data about the incorporation ritual, when these shamans may fuse with their tutelary spirit, we had to dwell on a model repeatedly fed since Gestalt findings, endowing the brain with an enactive cognitive bistability property. This incorporation ritual which takes place in the liminal phase, evolves in such a bistability cycle, with two alternating morphings (metemmorphoses), each potentially stable in a fusion or segregation mode. Her lies the core for the success of such metemphysical concepts about metensomatosis, overdeveloped in the jhākri as a bistable intermediary intra mundi.

Unravelling correspondences between musical sounds and dance movements can lead to insights into the selection and development of culturally modified sensory, motor and perceptual capacities. Gaining these insights requires the development of holistic methodologies to analyse sound and movement concomitantly. The cultural training of performers and their intersubjective dynamics orient the interactions between sound and movement in any performance genre. As an entry point into considering the intimate entanglement of music and dance, this article opens with an account of the direct correspondences between sound and movement in Afro-Brazilian stick-dancing before analysing the more obscure relationships between sound and movement in West Sumatran plate-dancing. The rhythmic swinging of hand-held plates can be accompanied by tapping sounds created by dancers or by musicians. Differences between the timing of movement-related sounds in self-accompanied and musician-accompanied plate-dancing reveal how humanly organised expression is shaped by the interplay of bodily skill, perceptual processes and cultural experience.

In his 2017 World Day of Peace message, Pope Francis made a subtle yet stunning move when he called the Sermon on the Mount the Church’s “manual” for peacemaking at every level. Continuing the “fresh reappraisal” of war that the Second Vatican Council launched, Francis’s choice of a term associated with the “Manualist” tradition of natural-law casuistry signaled the Catholic magisterium’s growing commitment both to rooting its teaching on peace and war in biblical sources instead, and to active nonviolence in pursuit of just peace. Given centuries of dismissal of Jesus’s teaching as irrelevant to real-world politics by both Catholics and Protestants, reception of Francis’s signal will benefit both from fresh biblical exegesis and new insights into natural law. Informing the biblical side is the groundbreaking work by Glen Stassen on the triadic structure of Jesus’s teachings in Matthew 5-7, and its practical implications for just peacemaking. Informing the natural-law side are recent findings from social psychology and neuroanthropology on the role of mimesis in human formation. The two fields join in underscoring the creative power of what Stassen called transforming initiatives for breaking cycles of violence.

Health concerns about the long-term effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) often fail to reflect a sophisticated understanding of evolutionary theory or how a population will be affected by a selective pressure, even when that pressure arises from human action in the environment. Using niche construction theory, this article for a general audience seeks to explore how endocrine disruption might affect our species. The evidence suggests that EDCs may very well exert a selective influence by disrupting fertility, especially because a large number of EDCs seem to interact and target the same mechanisms. However, niche construction theory highlights the degree to which some of those changes will be reversible types of phenotypic bias and how EDC- resistance is also likely to be the outcome of niche-drive selection. 1