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Paper short abstract:

How does attention shape cross-cultural interaction? Drawing on philosophy of perception and anthropology of intentions, this paper analyses the connection between culture-specific facets of attention and their impact on cross-cultural interaction with an ethnographic case study in South Africa.

Paper long abstract:

How does attention shape cross-cultural interaction? And how do specific cultural backgrounds shape one’s attention?

Broadly defined, attention is an act of directing the mind. The capacity to steer attention is an integral part of our experiences and social lives. Our interactions in public and private spaces, institutions, offices and schools rely on cooperation, which in turn depends on our capacity to jointly attend to the same thing, and to each other.

This paper explores attention and its role in cross-cultural interaction. Drawing on philosophy of perception and anthropology of intentions, it analyses the connection between culture-specific facets of attention and their impact on cross-cultural interaction by means of an ethnographic case study in post-apartheid South Africa.

My hypothesis is that habits of attention evolve from perceptual, bodily immersion into specific social settings, as well as from exposure to hypotheses and arguments that, once absorbed, lead to normative attention. This modulation of attention is to some degree personal, but should be understood as connected to collective life experience. Examining this hypothesis, the paper seeks to shed light on the complex relations between mental and bodily habits of attention as fundamentally directed by specific experiences and norms.

Drawing parallels between intellectual and practical experience, I ask how to best understand attentional habits and their culturally patterned aspects. The main aim of this paper is to clarify the impact of attention on culturally specific legacies of attentional habits by studying its occurrence both as socially connecting and in its dividing power.