Schemata in Cognitive Anthropology

Abstract

The aim of this review is to examine concept being developed in cognitive science from perspective of cognitive anthropology. Cognitive science is inter-disciplipary field that was originally formed around joint interests of cognitive psychology and computer science and now includes cognitive anthropology and cognitive linguistics as well. Schemata (the plural), which are knowledge structures that are the building blocks of cognition, pervade theorizing about cognitive organization and function in cognitive science (173). Schema is most widely used term for these knowledge structures (7, 22, 39-41, 51, 80, 95, 96, 102, 120, 121, 142, 144-149, 1 5 1-154, 1 70-175,205,209,212), but they are also referred to as frames (138,219), scenes (69), scenarios (69! 159), scripts (1, 2, 183-188), gestalts ( 1 1 7-1 1 9), active structural networks ( 174), and memory organi­ zation packets ( 1 85). Schema and these other terms, although they are conceptualized somewhat differently by different writers, depending on their particular aims and in­ terests, bear a striking family resemblance to each other. The emphasis here will not be on differentiating among these terms and concepts, but rather on assembling a composite conceptualization that incorporates most important aspects of all these variants. Because is most commonly occur­ ring term, it will be used for this composite concept, and other terms will be reserved for distinguishing types of schemata and some of their interrela­ tionships. The schema notion and its importance ip cognitive research have been described and examined in numerous previous reviews. These have been reviews concerned either with cognitive science as a whole (21,94,144) or with work in cognitive psychology ( 100, 101, 142), cognitive social psycholo-