Cognitive levels and the cultural process

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting a general view of cognitive anthropology. It is focussed on the levels of cognition and sociocultural dynamics underlying them. A division of levels is proposed as follows. 1) Level of perceptual representation, analysing images and percepts. 2) Level of language, discussing the role of language in the construction of knowledge; structural aspect are considered, as well as rethorical tropes such as metaphor, synecdoche and metonimy. 3) Level Level of symbols, emphasising the notions of dominant symbols and key symbols. 4) Level of practices, comprising discussion of schema, script, rite, task and life plan, among others. 5) Level of mental categories, an approach to the problems of color classification, ethnobotany, ethnozoology, as well as classifications of diseases and emotions. 6) Level of superior forms of knowledge: institutional codes, myths, world views, logical structures of thought. Unities of analysis are used as operational variables, no existential value is attached to them. Articulation and hierarchy of levels are open to discussion.