Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the use of structured methods to explore the anthropology mind. It argues that ethnographically parochial scales can capture both heterogeneity and common cultural patterns, without losing sight of intuitions about mind shared across cultural contexts.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses the use of structured methods to explore the anthropology of mind. In particular, it describes a scale that I took a major hand in developing which turned out to be remarkably helpful in evaluating what we understood as “porosity”—the idea that the boundary between mind and world is permeable. The porosity scale was designed to learn the salience and distribution of cultural concepts of mental porosity in five ethnographic contexts, China, Vanuatu, North America, Ghana, and Thailand. Exploratory ethnographic work in Ghana inspired most of the scale items, however, the scale showed a high degree of inter-item reliability in the five regions in which it was administered. I discuss the implications of the data gathered on mental porosity using this type of scale. First, it provides insights on interregional and intraregional distinctions in cultural theories of mind that complement the insights of ethnographic research. For example, we see that some statements of our Ghanaian interlocutors are minority views, while others have more large-scale acceptance. Second, we find that some statements that one might otherwise assume to be uniquely Ghanaian have surprising resonance across contexts. Ethnographically parochial scales may, then, provide a way to capture salient patterns in local theories of mind while also capturing heterogeneity. It also enables one to understand interregional variations without essentializing differences and losing sight of intuitions about mind shared across cultural contexts.