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Psychological Anthropology and Education: a Delineation of a Field of Inquiry

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Psychological Anthropology and Education: a Delineation of a Field of Inquiry DOCUMENT RESUME ED 106 427 OD 015 163 AUTHOR Harrington, Charles TITLE Psychological Anthropology and Education: A Delineation of a Field of Inquiry. Final Report. INSTITUTION National Academy of Education, Sy~acuse, N.Y. PUB DATE Sep 74 NOTE 285p. EDRS P2/CE MP-S0.76 HC-S14.59 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS Cognitive Processes; *Cross Cultural Studies; Cultural Differences; Culture Free Tests; *Educational Anthropology; *Educational Research; Intelligence Tests; Perception; *Psychological Studies; Research Methodology; *Research Needs; Socialization; Sociocultural Patterns ABSTRACT The goal of this report is said to be to review current approaches in psychological anthropology in such a way as to demonstrate what are perceived to be their relevance and importance to an adequate anthropology of education. Part. One examines the trends seen emerging in the study of perception and cognition which those interested in education should find valuable. Part Two reviews research in socialization process emphasizing that education is embedded in a sociocultural matrix. It is argued that educational practices, in any given culture, arise from the requirements of the maintenance systems of that culture. In Part Three: the importance of historical context (migration and change! and situational factors (minority status) are argued. Some specific researches with various groups for whom the educational literature has had some interest, and in some cases preoccupation, are examined. The concluding section: (1) recommends how psychological anthropologists might more effectively influence educational research; (2) builds on the material previously presented, some delineation of priority problems in education; and; (3) as an overview, takes up a fundamental criticism which Might appear to argue that psychological anthropology, despite what has been said here, does not have relevance to the study of education, (Author/JM) PSYCHOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATION: A Delineation of a Field of Inquiry Charles Harrington Final Report for the Committee on Anthropology and Education of the National Academy of Education September 1974. US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. .11 EDUCATION t WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF 4:5 EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO DUCE() EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM 414 THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN A TiNG IT PO.N TS Oi VIEW OR OPINIONS 2 STATED 00 NOT NECESSARILY REPRE SENTOT F ICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY Acknowledgements In producing this document, I have benefitted from the collaboration of my colleagues in the anthropology and education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition, I owe a debt to a long collaboration with Peter Gumpert; in many areas it is difficult to tell where my thoughts end and his begin.Most explicitly, pp. 24-33, 37-49 are based heavily on the jointly authored Gumpert and Harrington (1972. ) I must thank, too, John Whiting, not only for the influence ne has had on my ideas as my major adviser and dissertation sponsor, but also for his collaboration in the production of Harrington and Whiting (1972) from which pp. 63-86 are derived. Thanks are due to Elizabeth Sklar for her tenacious assistance with the bibliographic search. She was assisted by Sonia Friedman. I owe a strong debt to a most conscientious dedicated and long-suffering assistant, Barbara Frankfurt, who kss been able to translate scribble into prose, and remained calm in the face of untold obstacles and variations in temperament. The manuscript benefitted from readings by Giselle Harrington and Peter Gumpert. The preparation of the manuscript was partially subsidized by the National Academy of Education's Committee on Anthropology and Education, Lambros Comitas, Chairman. Without his initiative, cajoling, aid mock anguish, I should never have begun, worked on, or completed this report. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction 1 I. Perception and Cognition 10 References 50 II. Socialization 57 References 101 III. Social Change 110 References 141 IV. Conclusions 146 References 158a Appendices 158b Appendix A 159 Appendix B 181 Appendix C ....220 iii INTRODUCTION The goal of this report is to review current approaches and findings in psychological anthropology in such a way as to demonstrate what I perceive to be their relevance and importance to an adequate anthropology of education. In meeting its goal this paper, of necessity, must abstract from the vast material generated by researchers in psychological anthropology certain topics which this author feels are the most directly or immediately relevant to education. What follows does not pretend to be a summary of research in the field of psychological anthropology (see Barnouw 1973), but is limited to that research likely to lead to a psychological anthro- pology of education. The field of inquiry known by the rubric psychological anthropology is concerned "with human behavior primarily in terms of the ideas which form the basis of the interrelationship between the individual and his society" (Hsu 1972:61. The field "take[s] it for granted that there is some connection between the make up of a culture and the particular personality (or personalities) of its. human characters. By "personality" we can mean two things. We can mean, first, the sum-total of the overt modes of behavior of an individual, in which we discern some integration and consistence, and which we thus understand to be facets or "traits" of that totaled patterned entity. Or secondly, we can mean some basic mental make-up underlying the pattern of overt behavior and accounting - 5 -2- for it in the sense of a hidden machine or a casually effective set of "factors" (Nadel 1951:405). While this broad conceptualization delimits an area of inquiry, it is not helpful in constructing the boundaries of that inquiry. As Hsu has pointed out, since all human behavior is mediated through individual human beings, all human behavior is at once psychological and social in nature (Hsu 1972:5). As a practical matter we define as psychological anthropology works which fit one of the following descriptions: 1. A work of psychological anthropology is one by an anthropologist who has a good knowledge of psycho- logical concepts or by the member of another discipline who has a good knowledge of anthropological concepts. 2. Any work that :Lea's with the individual as the locus of culture. 3. Any work that gives serious recognition to culture as an independent or dependent variable associated with personality. 4. Any work by an anthropologist which uses psychological concepts or techniques or by a scholar in a psychological discipline which provides directly pertinent data in forms which are useable by anthropologists... (Hsu 1972:2). The basic theoretical question that psychological anthropology raises is the one which most determines its relevance to the field of education- - the question of enculturation. Psychological anthropology as a part of anthropology has a goal of explainivg the diversity of human cultures, and how cultures, and hence the diversity, are maintained over time. To the psychological anthropologists the latter explanation lies in the ability of the culture to transmit itself from one generation to another, and, in the process, to grow and _ncorporate some change. 6 1,11AlEr Surely it should not be necessary to construct arguments for tilt. relevance to education of this branch of an-aropology for the benefit of the Committee of Anthropology and Education of the National Academy of Education. This issue is not as clear as it might be, however. When anthropologists first became formally involved in the study of education and began to appear on the faculty of schools of education, their raison d'etre was often to overcome the tremendous dominance of the psychologists on the field. Thus many anthropologists of education in a sense made their careers, or at least justified their existences, by researching and behaving differently from psychologists.As a result, a curious imbalance has occurred within the field of anthropology and education.Because psychological anthropology (or culture and personality as LeVine, 1973 still prefers) was associated, at least to some, with psychology and psychiatry; anthropology-and-education scholars tended to ignore it or even to respond as if it were pretty much in the "enemy's" camp.That this trend continues to the present is evidenced by the fact tha" the recent Burnett (1974) bibliography of anthropology and education, commissioned by the Anthropology and Education Committee of the National Academy of Education and published under the sponsorship of the Council on Anthropology and Education of the American Anthropological Association, specifically excludes studies from psychological anthropology, at the came time acknowledging their possible significance. It seems to me very likely that in linking their attitude toward psychology to psychological anthropology, anthropologists of education have (some might think in a very literal sense) thrown the baby out with the bath water. Accordingly, this paper reviews the literature of psychological anthropology, hoping to make it useable to students of . _ 7 -4- education, while at the same time arguing its relevance to that inquiry. The general point is that no studyof education can reasonably ignore the cross-cultural studies of learning process, socialization and social change of psychological anthropology. These are essential, indeed major, components of any anthropology and education. Psychological anthropology,
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