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Body and Mind in the Trobriand Islands
Author(s) -
Senft Gunter
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
ethos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1548-1352
pISSN - 0091-2131
DOI - 10.1525/eth.1998.26.1.73
Subject(s) - conceptualization , terminology , problem of universals , linguistics , mind–body problem , representation (politics) , psychology , epistemology , cognitive science , philosophy , politics , political science , law
This article discusses how the Trobriand Islanders speak about body and mind. It addresses the following questions: do the linguistic data fit into theories about lexical universals of body‐part terminology? Can we make inferences about the Trobrianders' conceptualization of psychological and physical states on the basis of these data? If a Trobriand Islander sees these idioms as external manifestations of inner states, then can we interpret them as a kind of ethnopsychological theory about the body and its role for emotions, knowledge, thought, memory, and so on? Can these idioms be understood as representation of Trobriand ethnopsychological theory?