Norbert Ross
Biographic Data
| ID | 5758959 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Norbert Ross |
| GIVEN NAMES | Norbert |
| FAMILY NAME | Ross |
| SIGNATURE | ROSS N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vanderbilt University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 146 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Biologies and Beings: World-Making, Cognition, and the Making of Self
In this paper, I explore some of my previous and ongoing research at the intersection of folk biology and cognition, focusing on wider philosophical implications. Specifically, I intend to destabilize previous findings of my own research, interrogating them with data from my more recent work and a perspective of ontology, epistemology, and world-making. In doing so, I aim to inject folk biological data to the discussion of ontology and vice versa…
Environmental Cognition
The study of environmental cognition combines culture‐specific and universal human folkbiological understandings with studies of environments, ecologies, and landscapes. Though harking back to early anthropological concerns over “cosmology” and “worldview,” environmental cognition has recently incorporated aspects of phenomenal anthropology and the “ontological turn.” The field thus combines questions from psychology, geography, philosophy, and a…
Ethnobiology and Cognition
For cognitive scientists, ethnobiology constitutes a domain that allows exploration of the developing mind in phylogenetic and ontogenetic terms. Anthropologists show particular concern with the development, maintenance, and change of ethnobiological knowledge and the resulting consequences for behavior. Research in this area relates work from the cognitive sciences with studies on institutions and behavior in relation to resource management and …
Ritual and Religion, Evolution of
Anthropological approaches to religion and ritual throughout the twentieth century comprise a wide array of perspectives and insights that can nevertheless be organized into two dimensions: groups versus individuals and functionalist versus intellectualist. In recent years, accounts of religion and ritual have emerged that are based on theories of biological evolution, in stark contrast to earlier approaches. Despite these new orientations, evolu…
Expectations of Similarity and Cultural Difference in Conceptual Models of Illness: A Comparison of Medical Staff and Mexican Migrants
Cultural competency has increasingly become a central concept in medical education and practice, focusing on recognizing the variation in patients' health-related beliefs and practices in order to improve cross-cultural communication and health outcomes. While numerous anthropologists critique cultural competency concepts, approaches, and instruments, there is little research regarding the central question of how biomedical providers perceive the…
Knowledge Organization, Categories, and Ad Hoc Groups: Folk Medical Models among Mexican Migrants in Nashville
In this article we bring together theory and methods from two different but related fields, anthropology—specifically medical anthropology—and the cognitive sciences—specifically research on categorization and reasoning. We explore folk medical models of Mexican migrants in the greater Nashville area. The combining thread is our exploration in conceptual organization (categorization) and reasoning. We not only integrate formal methods with ethnog…
Folkbiological reasoning from a cross-cultural developmental perspective: Early essentialist notions are shaped by cultural beliefs
In 2 experiments, the authors examined the evolution of folkbiological reasoning in children (4 to 10 years of age) and adults from 4 distinct communities (rural Native American, rural majority culture, and suburban and urban North American communities). Using an adoption paradigm, they examined participants' intuitions regarding the inheritance of properties and the mechanisms underlying the transmission of kindhood. Across all communities and a…
Triad Tasks, a Multipurpose Tool to Elicit Similarity Judgments: The Case of Tzotzil Maya Plant Taxonomy
The universality of multipurpose taxonomies has been widely established in folk biology. However, recent studies with nonprofessional fish experts in the United States as well as with tree experts in the Chicago area suggest that different goals can affect category organization of natural kinds. This article reports the results of a triad task study exploring specific aspects of the multipurpose plant taxonomy among the Tzotzil Maya of Zinacantán…
Ethnography and Experiments: Cultural Models and Expertise Effects Elicited with Experimental Research Techniques
This article reports the results of two independent studies dealing with saliency effects within the domain of folkbiological knowledge. In study 1, the authors present data from a free-listing task that explored tree-name generation among Tzotzil Maya of Zinacantán (Chiapas). Study 2 compares Menominee Native Americans with majority culture (nonprofessional) fish experts in central Wisconsin. The studies explore patterns of informant agreement a…
Evolution and devolution of knowledge: A Tale of Two Biologies
Anthropological enquiry suggests that all societies classify animals and plants in similar ways. Paradoxically, in the same cultures that have seen large advances in biological science, practical knowledge of nature has dramatically diminished. Here we describe historical, cross-cultural, and developmental research on the ways in which people ordinarily conceptualize organic nature (folk biology), concentrating on cognitive consequences associate…
Cognitive Aspects of Intergenerational Change: Mental Models, Cultural Change, and Environmental Behavior among the Lacandon Maya of Southern Mexico
The life of the Lacandon Maya of Mensäbäk (Chiapas, Mexico) has undergone tremendous changes in the last 30 years. These changes are manifested in a generational split in social relations, household location, and economic behavior. The changes affecting social life as well as decision-making processes are paralleled by changes in environmental cognition among the adult members of the community. Older individuals reveal a systematic awareness of t…
Folkecology, Cultural Epidemiology, and the Spirit of the Commons: A Garden Experiment in the Maya Lowlands, 19912001
Using a variation on an experimental approach from biology, we distinguish the influence of sociocultural factors from that of economic, demographic, and ecological factors in environmental management and maintenance. This is important to issues of global environmental change, where there is little empirical research into cultural effects on deforestation and land use. Findings with three groups who live in the same rainforest habitat and manifes…
Folkecology, Cultural Epidemiology, and the Spirit of the Commons: A Garden Experiment in the Maya Lowlands, 19912001
Using a variation on an experimental approach from biology, we distinguish the influence of sociocultural factors from that of economic, demographic, and ecological factors in environmental management and maintenance. This is important to issues of global environmental change, where there is little empirical research into cultural effects on deforestation and land use. Findings with three groups who live in the same rainforest habitat and manifes…
Evolution and devolution of knowledge: A Tale of Two Biologies
Anthropological enquiry suggests that all societies classify animals and plants in similar ways. Paradoxically, in the same cultures that have seen large advances in biological science, practical knowledge of nature has dramatically diminished. Here we describe historical, cross-cultural, and developmental research on the ways in which people ordinarily conceptualize organic nature (folk biology), concentrating on cognitive consequences associate…
Folkbiological reasoning from a cross-cultural developmental perspective: Early essentialist notions are shaped by cultural beliefs
In 2 experiments, the authors examined the evolution of folkbiological reasoning in children (4 to 10 years of age) and adults from 4 distinct communities (rural Native American, rural majority culture, and suburban and urban North American communities). Using an adoption paradigm, they examined participants' intuitions regarding the inheritance of properties and the mechanisms underlying the transmission of kindhood. Across all communities and a…
Ethnography and Experiments: Cultural Models and Expertise Effects Elicited with Experimental Research Techniques
This article reports the results of two independent studies dealing with saliency effects within the domain of folkbiological knowledge. In study 1, the authors present data from a free-listing task that explored tree-name generation among Tzotzil Maya of Zinacantán (Chiapas). Study 2 compares Menominee Native Americans with majority culture (nonprofessional) fish experts in central Wisconsin. The studies explore patterns of informant agreement a…
Triad Tasks, a Multipurpose Tool to Elicit Similarity Judgments: The Case of Tzotzil Maya Plant Taxonomy
The universality of multipurpose taxonomies has been widely established in folk biology. However, recent studies with nonprofessional fish experts in the United States as well as with tree experts in the Chicago area suggest that different goals can affect category organization of natural kinds. This article reports the results of a triad task study exploring specific aspects of the multipurpose plant taxonomy among the Tzotzil Maya of Zinacantán…
Knowledge Organization, Categories, and Ad Hoc Groups: Folk Medical Models among Mexican Migrants in Nashville
In this article we bring together theory and methods from two different but related fields, anthropology—specifically medical anthropology—and the cognitive sciences—specifically research on categorization and reasoning. We explore folk medical models of Mexican migrants in the greater Nashville area. The combining thread is our exploration in conceptual organization (categorization) and reasoning. We not only integrate formal methods with ethnog…
Cognitive Aspects of Intergenerational Change: Mental Models, Cultural Change, and Environmental Behavior among the Lacandon Maya of Southern Mexico
The life of the Lacandon Maya of Mensäbäk (Chiapas, Mexico) has undergone tremendous changes in the last 30 years. These changes are manifested in a generational split in social relations, household location, and economic behavior. The changes affecting social life as well as decision-making processes are paralleled by changes in environmental cognition among the adult members of the community. Older individuals reveal a systematic awareness of t…
Folkecology, Cultural Epidemiology, and the Spirit of the Commons: A Garden Experiment in the Maya Lowlands, 19912001
Using a variation on an experimental approach from biology, we distinguish the influence of sociocultural factors from that of economic, demographic, and ecological factors in environmental management and maintenance. This is important to issues of global environmental change, where there is little empirical research into cultural effects on deforestation and land use. Findings with three groups who live in the same rainforest habitat and manifes…
Evolution and devolution of knowledge: A Tale of Two Biologies
Anthropological enquiry suggests that all societies classify animals and plants in similar ways. Paradoxically, in the same cultures that have seen large advances in biological science, practical knowledge of nature has dramatically diminished. Here we describe historical, cross-cultural, and developmental research on the ways in which people ordinarily conceptualize organic nature (folk biology), concentrating on cognitive consequences associate…
Triad Tasks, a Multipurpose Tool to Elicit Similarity Judgments: The Case of Tzotzil Maya Plant Taxonomy
The universality of multipurpose taxonomies has been widely established in folk biology. However, recent studies with nonprofessional fish experts in the United States as well as with tree experts in the Chicago area suggest that different goals can affect category organization of natural kinds. This article reports the results of a triad task study exploring specific aspects of the multipurpose plant taxonomy among the Tzotzil Maya of Zinacantán…
Ethnography and Experiments: Cultural Models and Expertise Effects Elicited with Experimental Research Techniques
This article reports the results of two independent studies dealing with saliency effects within the domain of folkbiological knowledge. In study 1, the authors present data from a free-listing task that explored tree-name generation among Tzotzil Maya of Zinacantán (Chiapas). Study 2 compares Menominee Native Americans with majority culture (nonprofessional) fish experts in central Wisconsin. The studies explore patterns of informant agreement a…
Folkbiological reasoning from a cross-cultural developmental perspective: Early essentialist notions are shaped by cultural beliefs
In 2 experiments, the authors examined the evolution of folkbiological reasoning in children (4 to 10 years of age) and adults from 4 distinct communities (rural Native American, rural majority culture, and suburban and urban North American communities). Using an adoption paradigm, they examined participants' intuitions regarding the inheritance of properties and the mechanisms underlying the transmission of kindhood. Across all communities and a…
Knowledge Organization, Categories, and Ad Hoc Groups: Folk Medical Models among Mexican Migrants in Nashville
In this article we bring together theory and methods from two different but related fields, anthropology—specifically medical anthropology—and the cognitive sciences—specifically research on categorization and reasoning. We explore folk medical models of Mexican migrants in the greater Nashville area. The combining thread is our exploration in conceptual organization (categorization) and reasoning. We not only integrate formal methods with ethnog…
Expectations of Similarity and Cultural Difference in Conceptual Models of Illness: A Comparison of Medical Staff and Mexican Migrants
Cultural competency has increasingly become a central concept in medical education and practice, focusing on recognizing the variation in patients' health-related beliefs and practices in order to improve cross-cultural communication and health outcomes. While numerous anthropologists critique cultural competency concepts, approaches, and instruments, there is little research regarding the central question of how biomedical providers perceive the…
Environmental Cognition
The study of environmental cognition combines culture‐specific and universal human folkbiological understandings with studies of environments, ecologies, and landscapes. Though harking back to early anthropological concerns over “cosmology” and “worldview,” environmental cognition has recently incorporated aspects of phenomenal anthropology and the “ontological turn.” The field thus combines questions from psychology, geography, philosophy, and a…
Ethnobiology and Cognition
For cognitive scientists, ethnobiology constitutes a domain that allows exploration of the developing mind in phylogenetic and ontogenetic terms. Anthropologists show particular concern with the development, maintenance, and change of ethnobiological knowledge and the resulting consequences for behavior. Research in this area relates work from the cognitive sciences with studies on institutions and behavior in relation to resource management and …
Ritual and Religion, Evolution of
Anthropological approaches to religion and ritual throughout the twentieth century comprise a wide array of perspectives and insights that can nevertheless be organized into two dimensions: groups versus individuals and functionalist versus intellectualist. In recent years, accounts of religion and ritual have emerged that are based on theories of biological evolution, in stark contrast to earlier approaches. Despite these new orientations, evolu…
Biologies and Beings: World-Making, Cognition, and the Making of Self
In this paper, I explore some of my previous and ongoing research at the intersection of folk biology and cognition, focusing on wider philosophical implications. Specifically, I intend to destabilize previous findings of my own research, interrogating them with data from my more recent work and a perspective of ontology, epistemology, and world-making. In doing so, I aim to inject folk biological data to the discussion of ontology and vice versa…
Sociology (12 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Anthropology (9 works) · Biology (7 works) · Cognition (7 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Categorization, perception, and language (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Artificial Intelligence (5 works) · Cognitive science (5 works)