Ritual and Embodied Cognition
The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual November 8, 2018 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198747871.013.5 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
Human cognition is shaped by bodily actions, cultural context, and interactions with others, an idea known as the 4E approach (embodied, embedded, extended, enactive). Applying this expanded view to the study of religious rituals yields new insights. Humans are biocultural beings enmeshed in dynamic networks spanning time and space. The chapter reviews evidence and theories for a systematic, scientific study of brain, body, and behavior in rituals.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | An embodied cognition approach, particularly the 4E framework, offers important perspectives for understanding religious rituals. |
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the growing empirical knowledge about the interaction between bodily actions, human thinking, and the cultural embeddedness of human cognition. An approach to ritual based on this expanded view of cognition produces important perspectives and insights for the study of religions. Embodied cognition is a very diverse field and the chapter therefore draws on what is called the ‘4E approach’, i.e. cognition as embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive. Humans are enmeshed in a vast dynamic network of other bodies and minds stretching across the planet and back to the beginnings of time. We are biocultural creatures, in a most concrete sense. What is needed is a systematic, scientific study of brain, body, and behaviour in religious rituals. This chapter will sketch out some of the available evidence and the theories that have been developed to understand the evidence.