Janet Dixon Keller
Biographic Data
| ID | 78269 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Janet Dixon Keller |
| GIVEN NAMES | Janet Dixon |
| FAMILY NAME | Keller |
| SIGNATURE | KELLER J D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Woven World: Neotraditional Symbols of Unity in Vanuatu
The importance of kastom to national identity in Vanuatu has been recognized. In this paper I identify plaiting technology in general and basketry in particular — which once served to distinguish ethnic groups in Vanuatu — as emerging symbols of ni-Vanuatu unity. I argue that unlike these kastom traditions often discussed in the literature, plaiting and basketry need not be reinvented. Plaiting is a customary practice which has rich contemporaneo…
Geographies of Memory and Identity in Oceania
Intellectual Border Crossings
Society for Psychological Anthropology
Robust Subjects in Fragile Sciences
Boundaries of the Mind: The Individual in the Fragile Sciences By Robert A. Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004
Robust Subjects in Fragile Sciences: Boundaries of the Mind: The Individual in the Fragile Sciences
Human cognitive ecology: An instructive framework for comparative primatology
In this review, research on human cognitive ecology is compared with studies of the cognitive ecologies of apes–especially the common chimpanzee. The objective was to assess the feasibility of extending an activity‐theory framework developed in studies of humans to an integrated approach for studying the cognitive accomplishments and skills of other primates living in the wild. Six generalizations were abstracted from studies of humans: 1) Social…
Artefactual Intelligence: The Development and Use of Cognitively Congenial Artefacts (review)
Reviewed by: Artefactual Intelligence: The Development and Use of Cognitively Congenial Artefacts Janet Dixon Keller (bio) Artefactual Intelligence: The Development and Use of Cognitively Congenial Artefacts. By David de Léon. Lund, Sweden: Lund University Press, 2003. Comprising five previously published papers and an introduction, David de Léon's Artefactual Intelligence brings together a series of complementary analyses of the role of material…
Weavers of Song: Polynesian Music and Dance
Imagery in cultural tradition and innovation
Cultural traditions are preserved in the mental images stored and reconstructed from past experiences. Innovation requires the manipulation of this imagery in the course of productive activity. Tool use in the broadest sense is the mechanism enabling these processes. Vygotsky articulated a significant role for instrumental mediation in human psychology. We combine his perspective with insights from phenomenology and cognitive anthropology to deve…
Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction
Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction. William A. Foley. Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1997.495 pp
Cognition and Tool Use: The Blacksmith at Work
Cultural Dialectics of Knowledge and Desire
Cultural Dialectics of Knowledge and Desire. Charles Nuckolls. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996. 306 pp
Cognition in the Wild (Book)
1996). Cognition in the Wild (Book) Mind, Culture, and Activity: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 46-63
Computational complexity in the cognitive modelling of cosmological ideas
We will focus here on cognitive anthropology's contribution to the study of the representation of complex cultural categories. We will take two metaphysical concepts from Keller's field research in Oceania, which, by intuitive standards, are complex. Using these concepts, we will explore the issues of complexity identified above. The research site is the Polynesian outlier, West Futuna, Vanuatu. The targeted concepts are ones that traditional cog…
Thinking and acting with iron
In 1957 Ward Goodenough created a new mandate for anthropologists. He directed our attention to knowledge and action by setting the anthropologists' task as that of accounting for "whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to ... [society's] members" (Goodenough, 1957, p. 167). This passage has been repeatedly cited but it is worth doing so again for, in spite of repeated citations, scholars in anthropol…
AA Editor Responds
Subjective society and socially constituted selves
Westen, Drew. Self and Society: Narcissism, Collectivism, and the Development of Morals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. xvii + 438 pp. including references and index. $57.50 cloth, $19.95 paper. White, Geoffrey M., and John Kirkpatrick, eds. Person, Self and Experience: Exploring Pacific Ethnopsychologies. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1985, vii + 433 pp. including chapter references, chapter glossaries, and index. $38.5…
New AA Editor Announced
The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason
Fabricated World: An Interpretation of Kewa Tales
Cultural Dialectics of Knowledge and Desire
Cultural Dialectics of Knowledge and Desire. Charles Nuckolls. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996. 306 pp
Fabricated World: An Interpretation of Kewa Tales
Woven World: Neotraditional Symbols of Unity in Vanuatu
The importance of kastom to national identity in Vanuatu has been recognized. In this paper I identify plaiting technology in general and basketry in particular — which once served to distinguish ethnic groups in Vanuatu — as emerging symbols of ni-Vanuatu unity. I argue that unlike these kastom traditions often discussed in the literature, plaiting and basketry need not be reinvented. Plaiting is a customary practice which has rich contemporaneo…
Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction
Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction. William A. Foley. Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1997.495 pp
Cognition in the Wild (Book)
1996). Cognition in the Wild (Book) Mind, Culture, and Activity: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 46-63
Fabricated World: An Interpretation of Kewa Tales
The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason
New AA Editor Announced
Subjective society and socially constituted selves
Westen, Drew. Self and Society: Narcissism, Collectivism, and the Development of Morals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. xvii + 438 pp. including references and index. $57.50 cloth, $19.95 paper. White, Geoffrey M., and John Kirkpatrick, eds. Person, Self and Experience: Exploring Pacific Ethnopsychologies. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1985, vii + 433 pp. including chapter references, chapter glossaries, and index. $38.5…
Computational complexity in the cognitive modelling of cosmological ideas
We will focus here on cognitive anthropology's contribution to the study of the representation of complex cultural categories. We will take two metaphysical concepts from Keller's field research in Oceania, which, by intuitive standards, are complex. Using these concepts, we will explore the issues of complexity identified above. The research site is the Polynesian outlier, West Futuna, Vanuatu. The targeted concepts are ones that traditional cog…
Thinking and acting with iron
In 1957 Ward Goodenough created a new mandate for anthropologists. He directed our attention to knowledge and action by setting the anthropologists' task as that of accounting for "whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to ... [society's] members" (Goodenough, 1957, p. 167). This passage has been repeatedly cited but it is worth doing so again for, in spite of repeated citations, scholars in anthropol…
AA Editor Responds
Cognition in the Wild (Book)
1996). Cognition in the Wild (Book) Mind, Culture, and Activity: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 46-63
Cultural Dialectics of Knowledge and Desire
Cultural Dialectics of Knowledge and Desire. Charles Nuckolls. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996. 306 pp
Cognition and Tool Use: The Blacksmith at Work
Imagery in cultural tradition and innovation
Cultural traditions are preserved in the mental images stored and reconstructed from past experiences. Innovation requires the manipulation of this imagery in the course of productive activity. Tool use in the broadest sense is the mechanism enabling these processes. Vygotsky articulated a significant role for instrumental mediation in human psychology. We combine his perspective with insights from phenomenology and cognitive anthropology to deve…
Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction
Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction. William A. Foley. Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1997.495 pp
Weavers of Song: Polynesian Music and Dance
Human cognitive ecology: An instructive framework for comparative primatology
In this review, research on human cognitive ecology is compared with studies of the cognitive ecologies of apes–especially the common chimpanzee. The objective was to assess the feasibility of extending an activity‐theory framework developed in studies of humans to an integrated approach for studying the cognitive accomplishments and skills of other primates living in the wild. Six generalizations were abstracted from studies of humans: 1) Social…
Artefactual Intelligence: The Development and Use of Cognitively Congenial Artefacts (review)
Reviewed by: Artefactual Intelligence: The Development and Use of Cognitively Congenial Artefacts Janet Dixon Keller (bio) Artefactual Intelligence: The Development and Use of Cognitively Congenial Artefacts. By David de Léon. Lund, Sweden: Lund University Press, 2003. Comprising five previously published papers and an introduction, David de Léon's Artefactual Intelligence brings together a series of complementary analyses of the role of material…
Society for Psychological Anthropology
Robust Subjects in Fragile Sciences
Boundaries of the Mind: The Individual in the Fragile Sciences By Robert A. Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004
Robust Subjects in Fragile Sciences: Boundaries of the Mind: The Individual in the Fragile Sciences
Intellectual Border Crossings
Geographies of Memory and Identity in Oceania
Woven World: Neotraditional Symbols of Unity in Vanuatu
The importance of kastom to national identity in Vanuatu has been recognized. In this paper I identify plaiting technology in general and basketry in particular — which once served to distinguish ethnic groups in Vanuatu — as emerging symbols of ni-Vanuatu unity. I argue that unlike these kastom traditions often discussed in the literature, plaiting and basketry need not be reinvented. Plaiting is a customary practice which has rich contemporaneo…
Sociology (13 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Anthropology (8 works) · Cognition (6 works) · Cognitive science (6 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · History (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Aesthetics (5 works)