Conceptual Systems Theory: A Neglected Perspective for the Anthropology of Consciousness

As anthropology turns toward consciousness and its varied states, it needs a way to analyze the complexity of information processing that produces the knowing aspect of consciousness. The author introduces conceptual systems theory (CST), a neo-Piagetian model of cognitive development, as a tool for this purpose. CST has successfully explained information processing in social contexts but has been overlooked by anthropologists. The article discusses CST's neuroanthropological foundations and its potential applications to ethnological and ethnographic problems, offering a new framework for understanding how components of consciousness combine into alternative states across different sociocultural settings.

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Abstract

AbstractAs anthropology becomes more interested in consciousness and its numerous states, and with a slowly increasing appeal to neuroscience for insights and explanations of consciousness, there is an understandable interest in the components of consciousness and how they combine into alternative states in different sociocultural settings. One of those components should be the complexity of information processing producing the knowing aspect of consciousness. The author introduces an approach to this aspect in the form of conceptual systems theory (CST), a neo‐Piagetian model of cognitive development, which has been used to good effect to explain information processing in social situations but heretofore neglected by anthropologists. The neuroanthropological underpinnings of CST are discussed, as is the range of potential applications to ethnological and ethnographic problems.