School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses

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Neuroanthropology: the combined anthropological and neurobiological study of cultural activity

Domínguez, Juan Fernando ( 2007)

The main objective of this thesis is to make a contribution toward the development of a partnership between anthropology and neuroscience, a partnership that has been timidly developing during the last 30 years. This partnership has been broadly referred to as neuroanthropology. In this thesis I take some steps toward a demonstration not only of the possibility of neuroanthropology but of how it naturally follows from what we already know about the human condition thanks to anthropology and neuroscience independently. It is argued that the demonstration of the possibility for neuroanthropology rests on the abandonment of the dichotomy that separates the humanities and the sciences. As a result, the ways in which anthropology and neuroscience approach the object of study on which they converge, the individual, are shown to be interdependent. This interdependence leads to reconceptualize neuroanthropology as the study of cultural activity in both its experiential and neurobiological aspects. At the same time, this interdependence requires that methods from anthropology and neuroscience be brought together and coordinated for the purpose of investigating actual problems of research. I thus make the case for neuroanthropology to be more than a theoretical exercise. I argue for a neuroanthropology equally grounded in research.