Human Motives and Cultural Models (Publications of the Society for Psychological Anthropology, Series Number 1) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521423384 ISBN 13: 9780521423380

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1992

Synopsis

A full understanding of human action requires an understanding of what motivates people to do what they do. For too many years studies of motivation have drawn from different theoretical paradigms. Typically, human motivation has been modeled on animal behavior, while culture has been described as pure knowledge or symbol. The result has been insufficient appreciation of the role of culture in human motivation and a truncated view of culture as disembodied knowledge. The anthropologists in this volume have attempted a different approach, seeking to integrate knowledge, desire, and action into a single explanatory framework. This research builds on recent work in cognitive anthropology on cultural models.

About this title

Book Description

Developed from research in cognitive anthropology on cultural models, through which human realities are constructed and interpreted, this study of human motivation also draws upon developmental psychology, and psychoanalytic and social theory.

Review

'This useful, at times exciting, collection revives the integrationist vision of culture of Weber, Benedict and geertz ...' David Lipset, Current Anthropology

' ... a major contribution to psychological anthropology ... sure to be a significant reference point for anthropological theory for some time to come.' American Anthropologist

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0521423384
• ISBN 13: 9780521423380
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: D'Andrade Roy G., Strauss Claudia