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'Culture' and 'meaning' are central to anthropology, but anthropologists do not agree on what they are. Claudia Strauss and Naomi Quinn propose a new theory of cultural meaning, one that gives priority to the way people's experiences are internalized. Drawing on 'connectionist' or 'neural network' models as well as other psychological theories, they argue that cultural meanings are not fixed or limited to static groups, but neither are they constantly revised and contested. Their approach is illustrated by original research on understandings of marriage and ideas of success in the United States.

Reviews a range of current psychological theories of cultural meaning.

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CONTENTS

List of figures = ⅸ

List of tables = ⅹ

Acknowledgments = xi

Part Ⅰ Background

 1 Introduction = 3

  Meanings and culture = 5

  Psychology and cultural anthropology = 8

  Summary of the book = 10

 2 Anthropological resistance = 12

  Interpretivism : meanings are public = 13

  Poststructuralism and postmodernism : culture and the self are constructed = 23

  Historical materialism : people can resist cultural meanings = 36

  Cognition in practice/discourse pragmatics : meanings depend on context = 42

  Toward a more fruitful resolution : Bourdieu = 44

 3 Schema theory and connectionism = 48

  Introduction to connectionism = 50

  Connectionism for the somewhat more formally minded = 60

  Final comments : symbols and meanings = 82

Part Ⅱ Implications for a theory of culture

 4 Two properties of culture = 89

  Durability in the individual = 89

  Motivational force = 101

 5 Three further properties of culture = 111

  Historical durability = 111

  Thematicity = 118

  Sharedness = 122

Part Ⅲ Practice and possibilities

 6 Research on shared task solutions / NAOMI QUINN = 137

  Analysis 1. Metaphors for marriage and what they do = 140

  Analysis 2. A shared schema for reasoning about marriage = 160

  Conclusion = 187

 7 Research on the psychodynamics of shared understandings / NAOMI QUINN = 189

  Analysis 3. The psychodynamic basis of marital love = 189

  Conclusion = 208

 8 Research on cultural discontinuities / CLAUDIA STRAUSS = 210

  Analysis 1. How are conflicting discourses internalized? = 213

  Analysis 2. The disparate motivational effects of different forms of culture learning = 231

  Analysis 3. Disjunctures between shared understandings and public culture = 245

  Conclusion = 251

 9 Beyond old oppositions = 252

Notes = 257

References = 291

General index = 313

Name index = 319