Charles D. Laughlin
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Charles D. Laughlin
Charles D. Laughlin Jr. (born 1938) is an American neuroanthropologist known primarily for having co-founded a school of neuroanthropological theory called "biogenetic structuralism." Laughlin is an emeritus professor of anthropology and religion at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Biography Following service in the American Air Force, Laughlin completed his undergraduate work in anthropology with a concentration in philosophy at San Francisco State University. He then did graduate work in anthropology at the University of Oregon, beginning in 1966. His doctoral dissertation was based on fieldwork conducted among a small tribe in northeast Uganda called the So (aka Tepeth, Tepes; see Laughlin and Allgeier 1979). Laughlin's choice of the So was influenced by conversations he had with Colin Turnbull, who had worked with nearby peoples. Laughlin completed his dissertation, ''Economics and Social Organization among the So of Northeastern Uganda'', and received his Ph.D. in ...
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Neuroanthropology
Neuroanthropology is the study of the relationship between culture and the brain. This field of study emerged from a 2008 conference of the American Anthropological Association. It is based on the premise that lived experience leaves identifiable patterns in brain structure, which then feed back into cultural expression. The exact mechanisms are so far ill defined and remain speculative. Overview Neuroanthropology explores how the brain gives rise to culture, how culture influences brain development, structure and function, and the pathways followed by the co-evolution of brain and culture. Moreover, neuroanthropologists consider how new findings in the brain sciences help us understand the interactive effects of culture and biology on human development and behavior. In one way or another, neuroanthropologists ground their research and explanations in how the human brain develops, how it is structured and how it functions within the genetic and cultural limits of its biology (s ...
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Zen Buddhism
Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka philosophies, with Chinese Taoist thought, especially Neo-Daoist. Zen originated as the Chan School (禪宗, ''chánzōng'', 'meditation school') or the Buddha-mind school (佛心宗'', fóxīnzōng''), and later developed into various sub-schools and branches. Chan is traditionally believed to have been brought to China by the semi-legendary figure Bodhidharma, an Indian (or Central Asian) monk who is said to have introduced dhyana teachings to China. From China, Chán spread south to Vietnam and became Vietnamese Thiền, northeast to Korea to become Seon Buddhism, and east to Japan, becoming Japanese Zen. Zen emphasizes meditation practice, direct insight into one's own Buddha nature (見性, Ch. ''jiànxìng,'' Jp. '' kenshō ...
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Function (engineering)
In engineering, a function is interpreted as a specific process, action or task that a system is able to perform.R.Barker, C. Longman, Case Method: Function and Process Modelling, Addison-Wesley Professional, 1992. In engineering design In the lifecycle of engineering projects, there are usually distinguished subsequently: ''Requirements'' and ''Functional specification'' documents. The ''Requirements'' usually specifies the most important attributes of the requested system. In the ''Design specification'' documents, physical or software processes and systems are frequently the requested functions In products For advertising and marketing of technical products, the number of functions they can perform is often counted and used for promotion. For example a calculator capable of the basic mathematical operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, would be called a "four-function" model; when other operations are added, for example for scientific, financial, or ...
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Structure
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as biological organisms, minerals and chemicals. Abstract structures include data structures in computer science and musical form. Types of structure include a hierarchy (a cascade of one-to-many relationships), a network featuring many-to-many links, or a lattice featuring connections between components that are neighbors in space. Load-bearing Buildings, aircraft, skeletons, anthills, beaver dams, bridges and salt domes are all examples of load-bearing structures. The results of construction are divided into buildings and non-building structures, and make up the infrastructure of a human society. Built structures are broadly divided by their varying design approaches and standards, into categories including building struct ...
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Archetype
The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that other statements, patterns of behavior, and objects copy, emulate, or "merge" into. Informal synonyms frequently used for this definition include "standard example", "basic example", and the longer-form "archetypal example"; mathematical archetypes often appear as " canonical examples". # the Jungian psychology concept of an inherited unconscious predisposition, behavioral trait or tendency ("instinct") shared among the members of the species; as any behavioral trait the tendency comes to being by way of patterns of thought, images, affects or pulsions characterized by its qualitative likeness to distinct narrative constructs; unlike personality traits, many of the archetype's fundamental characteristics are shared in common with ...
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Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and correspondent, Jung was a complex and convoluted academic, best known for his concept of Jungian archetypes, archetypes. Alongside contemporaries Sigmund Freud, Freud and Alfred Adler, Adler, Jung became one of the most influential psychologists of the early 20th century and has fostered not only scholarship, but also popular interest. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religious studies. He worked as a research scientist at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital in Zurich, under Eugen Bleuler. Jung established himself as an influential mind, developing a friendship with Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, conducting a The Freud/Jung Letters, leng ...
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Infant
In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to juveniles of other organisms. A newborn is, in colloquial use, a baby who is only hours, days, or weeks old; while in medical contexts, a newborn or neonate (from Latin, ''neonatus'', newborn) is an infant in the first 28 days after birth (the term applies to premature, full term, and postmature infants). Infants born prior to 37 weeks of gestation are called "premature", those born between 39 and 40 weeks are "full term", those born through 41 weeks are "late term", and anything beyond 42 weeks is considered "post term". Before birth, the offspring is called a fetus. The term ''infant'' is typically applied to very young children under one year of age; however, definitions may vary and may include children up to two years of age. When a human chi ...
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Fetus
A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic development, embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Prenatal development is a continuum, with no clear defining feature distinguishing an embryo from a fetus. However, in general a fetus is characterized by the presence of all the major body organs, though they will not yet be fully developed and functional, and some may not yet be situated in their final Anatomy, anatomical location. In human prenatal development, fetal development begins from the ninth week after Human fertilization, fertilization (which is the eleventh week of Gestational age (obstetrics), gestational age) and continues until the childbirth, birth of a newborn. Etymology The word ''wikt:fetus#English, fetus'' (plural ''wikt:fetuses#English, fetuses'' or rarely, the solecism ''wikt:feti#English, feti''''Oxford English Dict ...
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Neural Structure
Neuroanatomy is the study of the structure and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defined nervous systems. Their neuroanatomy is therefore better understood. In vertebrates, the nervous system is segregated into the internal structure of the brain and spinal cord (together called the central nervous system, or CNS) and the series of nerves that connect the CNS to the rest of the body (known as the peripheral nervous system, or PNS). Breaking down and identifying specific parts of the nervous system has been crucial for figuring out how it operates. For example, much of what neuroscientists have learned comes from observing how damage or "lesions" to specific brain areas affects behavior or other neural functions. For information about the composition of non-human animal nervous systems, see nervous system. For information ab ...
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Cognized Environment
Cognized environment is a concept first introduced by the late anthropologist Roy Rappaport (1968), in contrast to what he called the ''operational environment'' (see Rappaport 1979:97-144, 1984:337-352). Rappaport was an ecological anthropologist, like Andrew P. Vayda, and wished to contrast the actual reality and adaptations (the operational environment) within a people's ecological niche – say, the existence of tsetse flies and their role in causing sleeping sickness among humans – with how the people's culture understands nature (the cognized environment) – say, the belief that witches live in those areas that science knows is the habitat of the tsetse. Rappaport's principal concern was the role of ritual in mediating the cognized and operational environments. Another group of anthropologists later took up the use of Rappaport's concepts and applied them toward developing a school of neuroanthropology called biogenetic structuralism (see Laughlin and Brady 1978: 6, d' ...
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Mental Model
A mental model is an internal representation of external reality: that is, a way of representing reality within one's mind. Such models are hypothesized to play a major role in cognition, reasoning and decision-making. The term for this concept was coined in 1943 by Kenneth Craik, who suggested that the mind constructs "small-scale models" of reality that it uses to anticipate events. Mental models can help shape behaviour, including approaches to solving problems and performing tasks. In psychology, the term ''mental models'' is sometimes used to refer to mental representations or mental simulation generally. The concepts of schema and conceptual models are cognitively adjacent. Elsewhere, it is used to refer to the "mental model" theory of reasoning developed by Philip Johnson-Laird and Ruth M. J. Byrne. History The term ''mental model'' is believed to have originated with Kenneth Craik in his 1943 book ''The Nature of Explanation''. Georges-Henri Luquet in ''Le dessin enfant ...
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Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ..., and affiliated with Columbia University. Founded in 1893, it is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology, religion, film, and international studies. History Columbia University Press was founded in May 1893. In 1933, the first four volumes of the ''History of the State of New York'' were published. In the early 1940s, the Press' revenues rose, partially thanks to the ''Encyclopedia'' and the government's purchase of 12,500 copies for use by the military. Columbia University Press is notable for publishing r ...
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