During the last decades, the cognitive sciences and cognitive anthropology have increasingly veered away from each other. Cognitive anthropologists have become so rare within the cognitive sciences that Beller, Bender, and Medin (this issue) even propose a division of the cognitive sciences and cognitive anthropology. However, such a divorce might be premature. This commentary tries to illustrate the benefits that cognitive anthropologists have to offer, not despite, but because of their combination of humanistic and scientific elements. It argues that the (...) cognitive sciences (among others) profit from these benefits, as culture will become crucial for cognitive research. At the same time, problems within cognitive anthropology are discussed, including, for example, the responsibility of cognitive anthropologists to promote young academics. Finally, ideas are presented that might support future interdisciplinary collaboration. (shrink)

Annelie Ramsbrock schreibt eine Geschichte der künstlich gestalteten Schönheit vom Ende der Aufklärung bis zum Beginn des Nationalsozialismus. Dabei verdeutlicht sie, dass die Ausbildung von Schönheitsidealen immer grundlegenden gesellschaftlichen Ordnungsmustern unterlag. Zum einen zeigt sich in Bereichen wie der Schönheitschirurgie oder der Herstellung von Kosmetika die Entwicklung des naturwissenschaftlichen Wissens. Zum anderen boten korrigierte Körper eine Projektionsfläche für soziale Ordnungsvorstellungen. Indem die Geschichte der Schönheit sowohl als eine Geschichte des Wissens als auch des Wertens gedacht wird, stellt die Autorin (...) nicht zuletzt den 'Mythos Schönheit' zur Disposition. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to critically question whether the church is still able to guide people to make meaningful choices with regard to marriage and sexuality when values keep shifting. This question is especially relevant where the church still tends to uphold premodern values (heteronormative, patriarchal, monogamous) with regard to sexuality and marriage as the only (prescriptive) model for marriage in a postmodern world. The article consists of the following sections: changing values versus traditional values; marriage and sexuality (...) from biblical times to the present; church in crisis; and eco-feminist family ethics. (shrink)

The focus of this reflection on Yolanda Dreyer's contribution to the academy is her research on gender, sexuality and marriage. The contributions she has made were written from a pastoral perspective and focused on pastoral interaction with women. The issues surrounding the church's view on marriage does not only concern the roles given to women but also the place and status that the church and society assigned to marriage as an institution. Her contribution in the area of sexuality is very (...) closely linked to the insights she provides in her research on homosexuality. How sexuality is seen has an impact on how homosexuality and heterosexuality are reflected on. (shrink)

In hierdie hoofstuk word Luther se teologiese denke oor die huwelik en seksualiteit bespreek. Luther se invloed op teologiese denke oor die huwelik word aangetoon. Die hoofstuk wys daarop dat sedert Luther tot vandag, seksuele verskille 'n belangrike kwessie is wanneer daar vanuit 'n teologiese perspektief oor die huwelk nagedink word. 'n Hermeneutiek van suspisie word gebruik om die skeppingsorde teologie sowel as die begrip 'mens as geskape na die beeld van God', wat tradisioneel gebruik word in die nadenke oor (...) die huwelik, te interpreteer. (shrink)

We hypothesised that belief in conspiracy theories would be predicted by the general tendency to attribute agency and intentionality where it is unlikely to exist. We further hypothesised that this tendency would explain the relationship between education level and belief in conspiracy theories, where lower levels of education have been found to be associated with higher conspiracy belief. In Study 1 participants were more likely to agree with a range of conspiracy theories if they also tended to attribute intentionality and (...) agency to inanimate objects. As predicted, this relationship accounted for the link between education level and belief in conspiracy theories. We replicated this finding in Study 2, whilst taking into account beliefs in paranormal phenomena. These results suggest that education may undermine the reasoning processes and assumptions that are reflected in conspiracy belief. (shrink)

The building of a railway tunnel through the Hallandsås ridge in the southwest of Sweden resulted in sinking groundwater levels and a toxic spill for the local community. As a result, this highly technological project expanded from the addressing of technological and economic issues of rail traffic and tunnel building to include issues of environmental harm and how to assess and manage the geology of the ridge. A central concern for local residents as well as for the developer has been (...) how to view and interpret the resource of groundwater. This article focuses on groundwater as a boundary object, bordering the domains of the technologists and the local community. In this situation, technological understanding and knowledge confronts an experience-based understanding and a symbolic interpretation of the water resource. (shrink)

Speakers of English frequently associate location in space with valence, as in moving up and down the “social ladder.” If such an association also holds for the sagittal axis, an object “in front of” another object would be evaluated more positively than the one “behind.” Yet how people conceptualize relative locations depends on which frame of reference (FoR) they adopt—and hence on cross‐linguistically diverging preferences. What is conceptualized as “in front” in one variant of the relative FoR (e.g., translation) is (...) “behind” under another variant (reflection), and vice versa. Do such diverging conceptualizations of an object's location also lead to diverging evaluations? In two studies employing an implicit association test, we demonstrate, first, that speakers of German, Chinese, and Japanese indeed evaluate the object “in front of” another object more positively than the one “behind.” Second, and crucially, the reversal of which object is conceptualized as “in front” involves a corresponding reversal of valence, suggesting an impact of linguistically imparted FoR preferences on evaluative processes. (shrink)