The AHRC Culture and the Mind project is a major five-year interdisciplinary research project based in the Philosophy Department at the University of Sheffield. The project is funded primarily through a major research grant of £538,000 from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (to the project director, Stephen Laurence).
The project brings together top scholars in a broad range of disciplines-including anthropology, archaeology, cognitive psychology, comparative psychology, developmental psychology, economics, history, neuroscience, and philosophy-to investigate the philosophical consequences of the impact of culture on the mind and the cognitive and evolutionary foundations of culture. (See also the related AHRC Innateness and the Structure of the Mind project).
The AHRC Culture and the Mind Project is organized around three subprojects.
- Folk Psychology & Folk Epistemics (2006-2009)
- Norms & Moral Psychology (2007-2010)
- Artefacts & Material Culture (2008-2011)
Each subproject involves a number of workshops and philosophically informed anthropological fieldwork, and will culminate in a major international conference that will be open to the public. Information regarding publications based on project research will be posted under the project subheadings and on the project publications page.
NEW 2016 PROJECT PUBLICATIONS:
H.Clark Barrett, Alexander Bolyanatz, Alyssa Crittenden, Daniel Fessler, Simon Fitzpatrick, Michael Gurven, Joe Henrich, Martin Kanovsky, Geoffrey Kushnick, Anne Pisor, Brooke Scelza, Stephen Stich, Chris von Reudon, Wanying Zhao, and Stephen Laurence (2016). Small-Scale Societies Exhibit Fundamental Variation in the Role of Intentions in Moral Judgment.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Early Edition. [with Supplementary Information, pp. 1-71]. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1522070113
Daniel M. T. Fessler , Colin Holbrook, Martin Kanovsky, H. Clark Barrett, Alexander H. Bolyanatz, Mathew M. Gervais, Michael Gurven, Joseph Henrich, Geoff Kushnick, Anne C. Pisor, Stephen Stich, Christopher von Rueden, and Stephen Laurence (2016). Moral parochialism misunderstood: A reply to Piazza and Sousa. Proceedings of the Royal Society; B (Biological Sciences), 283, 2015262. [with Electronic Supplementary Materials (pp. 1-9)]. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2628
See Project Publications for more publications.
Project Fieldsites
- AKA Fieldsite in the Congo Basin — Primary Site Researchers Adam Boyette and Barry Hewlett
- BUKUSU Fieldsite in Kenya — Primary Site Researcher Tanya Broesch
- CHHATTISGARH Fieldsite in Central India — Primary Site Researcher Peggy Froerer
- FAROESE Fieldsite in the Faroe Islands — Primary Site Researcher Richard McElreath
- HADZA Fieldsite in Tanzania — Primary Site Researcher Alyssa Crittenden
- HIMBA Fieldsite in Namibia — Primary Site Researcher Brooke Scelza
- KARO BATAK Fieldsite in North Sumatra, Indonesia - Primary Site Researcher Geoff Kushnick
- MARAJÓ Fieldsite in Brazil — Primary Site Researcher Emma Cohen
- MARTU Fieldsite in Western Australia — Primary Site Researcher Brooke Scelza
- NGANDU Fieldsite in Congo Basin — Primary Site Researchers Adam Boyette, Nicole Tyllas, and Barry Hewlett
- QUECHUAN / AYMARAN Fieldsite in Peru — Primary Site Researcher Cristina Moya
- SALAR Fieldsite in Qinghai Province, China — Primary Site Researcher Jianxin Wang
- SHUAR Fieldsite in Amazonian Ecuador — Primary Site Researcher Clark Barrett
- STOROZHNITSA Fieldsite in Western Ukraine — Primary Site Researcher Martin Kanovsky
- SURSURUNGA Fieldsite in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea — Primary Site Researcher Alexander Bolyanatz
- TSIMANE Fieldsite in Bolivia — Primary Site Researchers Mike Gurven and Chris von Rueden
- TURKANA Fieldsite in East Africa — Primary Site Researcher Pierre Lienard
- TURKEY Fieldsite — Primary Site Researcher Ayse Uskul
- YASAWAN Fieldsite in Fiji — Primary Site Researcher Joseph Henrich
Funding
This project is sponsored by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council with additional funding provided by the University of Sheffield Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies and the Rutgers University Research Group on Evolution and Higher Cognition.