animism
Daniel D. Dilks
Department of Psychology
Emory University
definition of animism
Non-human entities, including animals, plants, and
even inanimate objects (e.g.,rocks, mountains) or
natural phenomena (e.g., thunder, shadows)
possess a soul.
theories of animism
Sir Edward Tylor (1871)
• first coined the term “animism”; the belief that
natural objects other than humans have souls
• animistic beliefs were “childish” and typical of
“underdevelopment”
• common in “primitive” peoples (i.e., hunter
gatherer societies, klans, tribes)
• basis of many religions (e.g., shinto, hinduism,
native american)
theories of animism
Bruno Latour (20th century)
• all societies “animate” the world around them;
we create personal relationships with elements
of the so-called objective world, whether pets,
cars, or teddy-bears, who we recognize as
subjects
The tendency in savages to imagine that natural objects
and agencies are animated by spiritual or living essences,
is perhaps illustrated by a little fact which I once noticed:
my dog, a full grown and very sensible animal, was lying on
the lawn during a hot and still day; but at a little distance a
slight breeze occasionally moved an open parasol, which
would have been wholly disregarded by the dog, had any
one stood near it. As it was, every time that the parasol
slightly moved, the dog growled fiercely and barked. He
must, I think, have reasoned to himself in a rapid and
unconscious manner, that movement without any apparent
cause indicated the presence of some strange living agent,
and no stranger had a right to be on his territory.
-Darwin
The tendency in savages to imagine that natural objects
and agencies are animated by spiritual or living essences,
is perhaps illustrated by a little fact which I once noticed:
my dog, a full grown and very sensible animal, was lying on
the lawn during a hot and still day; but at a little distance a
slight breeze occasionally moved an open parasol, which
would have been wholly disregarded by the dog, had any
one stood near it. As it was, every time that the parasol
slightly moved, the dog growled fiercely and barked. He
must, I think, have reasoned to himself in a rapid and
unconscious manner, that movement without any apparent
cause indicated the presence of some strange living agent,
and no stranger had a right to be on his territory.
-Darwin
The tendency in savages to imagine that natural objects
and agencies are animated by spiritual or living essences,
is perhaps illustrated by a little fact which I once noticed:
my dog, a full grown and very sensible animal, was lying on
the lawn during a hot and still day; but at a little distance a
slight breeze occasionally moved an open parasol, which
would have been wholly disregarded by the dog, had any
one stood near it. As it was, every time that the parasol
slightly moved, the dog growled fiercely and barked. He
must, I think, have reasoned to himself in a rapid and
unconscious manner, that movement without any apparent
cause indicated the presence of some strange living agent,
and no stranger had a right to be on his territory.
-Darwin
psychology and animism
Jean Piaget (20th century)
• children think and treat objects as animate
• children assume all events are the product of
intention; they have a cognitive inability to
distinguish the external world from one’s internal
world
modern science and
animism
Cornelius Borck (2010)
• adults, even scientists, think and treat objects
as animate
• technosciences constitute ever more [nonhuman] entities with agency (function, purpose)
•
three examples: i) a gene causes cancer, ii)
social media can cause political change (e.g.,
the arab spring); smart devices “learn” and
adapt to their user
modern science and
animism
Cornelius Borck (2010)
• the “hard problem” of consciousness
• fMRI is the latest tool to demonstrate that
matter (the brain) can be animated; the brain
has functions, purposes and processes
what is the nature of the human
mind/brain?
• composed of special-purpose
components, each tailored to solve a
single specific task?
• more general kind of intelligence, with minds
and brains prepared to tackle a wide range of
problems without special-purpose machinery
for any of them in particular?
fiercely debated throughout the history of neuroscience…..
Origins of The Concept of Localization of Function
Gall (1758 - 1828): neuroanatomist; originator of idea of
cortical localization
• the brain is the seat of the mind
contains an “organ” for each mental
faculty (i.e., 27)
• bumps on the skull as the key method
Gall’s 27 Faculties
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The instinct of reproduction (located in the cerebellum).
SHARED
The love of one's offspring.
Affection; friendship.
WITH
The instinct of self-defence; courage; the tendency to get into fights.
The carnivorous instinct; the tendency to murder.
ANIMALS
Guile; acuteness; cleverness.
The feeling of property; the instinct of stocking up on food (in animals); covetousness;
the tendency to steal.
8. Pride; arrogance; haughtiness; love of authority; loftiness.
9. Vanity; ambition; love of glory (a quality "beneficent for the individual and for society").
10. Circumspection; forethought.
11. The memory of things; the memory of facts; educability; perfectibility.
12. The sense of places; of space proportions.
13. The memory of people; the sense of people.
14. The memory of words.
15. The sense of language; of speech.
16. The sense of colours.
17. The sense of sounds; the gift of music.
18. The sense of connectness between numbers.
19. The sense of mechanics, of construction; the talent for architecture.
UNIQUELY
20. Comparative sagacity.
21. The sense of metaphysics.
HUMAN
22. The sense of satire; the sense of witticism.
23. The poetical talent.
24. Kindness; benevolence; gentleness; compassion; sensitivity; moral sense.
25. The faculty to imitate; the mimic.
26. The organ of religion.
27. The firmness of purpose; constancy; perseverance; obstinacy.
Origins of The Concept of Localization of Function
Gall (1758 - 1828): neuroanatomist; originator of idea of
cortical localization
• the brain is the seat of the mind
contains an “organ” for each mental
faculty (i.e., 27)
• bumps on the skull as the key method
• lectured widely, very popular, big $$
• an 1827 phrenology book sold >100,000
• then Emperor Francis I put a stop to it,
saying Gall’s doctrine “is opposed to the
first principles of morals and religion”
• forced to leave Vienna
The Response to Gall
Flourens (1794 –1867):
• nasty attacks on Gall
• founder of experimental brain
science
• opponent of localization of
function:
“all sensory and volitional faculties
exist in the cerebral hemispheres
and must be regarded as
occupying concurrently the same
seat in these structures”
Gall: the right (general) idea but the wrong method
Flourens: better method but wrong theory
The Localization of Speech: Broca
Broca (1796 - 1881):
• highly respected physician; the head of
lots of fancy academic societies
• 1861: frontal lobe as seat of speech
(Patient “Tan”)
• brought localization of function into
academic mainstream
Broca’s church tried to throw him out;
founded a society sympathetic to
Charles Darwin's theories, and
consequently was denounced by the
authorities as a subversive, materialist,
and corrupter of the youth.
The Debate Continues into the Twentieth
Century:
Proponents of Localization
Korbinian Brodmann (1868 –1918)
• identified 52 distinct “areas” based on
cytoarchitecture
• thought of them as like “organs”
“The specific histological
differentiation of the cortical areas
proves irrefutably their specific
functional differentiation – for it
rests as we have seen on the
division of labor.”
The Debate Continues into the Twentieth
Century:
Opponents of Localization
Camillo Golgi (1843-1926):
• inventor of Golgi (silver nitrate) stain
• Nobel prize in 1906 w/ Ramon y Cajal
though neurons were fused into a net,
so opposed localization of function
The Debate Continues into the Twentieth
Century:
Opponents of Localization
Karl Lashley (1890–1958):
• searched for “engram” by removing cortex in rats and testing
memory
• found: amount of cortex removed in rats mattered but location did
not
• proposed two principles: i) "mass action”: cerebral cortex acts as a
whole in many types of learning, ii) "equipotentiality”: if certain
parts of the brain are damaged, other parts of the brain may take
on the role of the damaged portion
Some Recent Views
A consensus eventually emerged: basic sensory and motor
functions occur in specialized cortical regions.
Some Recent Views
A consensus eventually emerged: basic sensory and motor
functions occur in specialized cortical regions.
Somatopic map
Penfield’s
homunculus
(from Penfield & Ramussen, 1950)
Retinotopic map (V1)
Originally
discovered
by Holmes
& Horrax
(1919)
Some Recent Views
A consensus eventually emerged: basic sensory and motor
functions occur in specialized cortical regions.
But what about higher functions?
Schiller (1994): "each extrastriate visual area, rather than performing
a unique, one-function analysis, is engaged, as are most neurons in
the visual system, in many different tasks.”
Huettel et al (2004): "unlike the phrenologists, who believed that
very complex traits were associated with discrete brain regions,
modern researchers recognize that …. a single brain region may
participate in more than one function.”
Kanwisher, McDermott, & Chun (1997): “the fusiform face
area….is selectively involved in the perception of faces.”
Who Cares about Functional Specificity in the Brain?
This question matters because:
• one of the most fundamental questions about the
organization of mind and brain
• has major implications for our understanding of the
computations underlying cognition (e.g., computational
models of face processing will be very different if they
must also be able to work for the recognition of objects,
words, and scenes).
Many ways to investigate this question,
but a particularly useful one is brain imaging…..
fMRI: functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
How does it work?
Basic Principle of fMRI
• Local change in neural activity causes local change in blood
flow
• A giant magnet then measures the magnetic properties in the
blood as subjects carry out one task versus another
• Finally, the changes in blood flow associated with the two
tasks allows us to indirectly measure the neural activity
associated with the task of interest, revealing then the region
of cortex which plays a role in a given psychological function
Not
How causation!
do we use this thing to investigate the
organization of the brain?
Are there brain regions specialized for face recognition?
Kanwisher, McDermott, & Chun (1997)
Faces > Objects
• Is this thing specialized for face recognition?
need further tests...
anything animate? anything interesting? anything “expert”?
localize and test method
pursuing this strategy….
Functionally Specific Regions in the Human Brain
Places
Faces
Bodies
The very existence of these regions raises numerous questions!!
Hot off the presses…
rpSTS:
• not fully developed until
around adolescents
• responds to real faces,
not doll faces
Faces
Animism?????
thank you