Connections

In all places and at all times people are making connections. This groundbreaking work investigates what gets connected (antecedent and subsequent social events knotted together into what the author dubs 'string being') and what does the connecting (linked neural circuits in the brain that run on culture like an engine runs on fuel). Connections boldly unites two warring intellectual traditions - hermeneutics and cognitive neuroscience - proposing that brain structures form a cultural neurohermeneutic system which functions like a bow firing arrows linking past and future realities. This system is a connector in human affairs and can explain everyday life. Its precise anatomy remains speculative, but enough is known to hypothesize that it functions as an interpretive hierarchy that permits individuals to make increasingly complex interpretations of social events on the basis of cultural memory. The book also marries another odd couple. Because 'string being' involves people's actions, and because these are understood to be social phenomena, the anthropology outlined here is very much a social one. However, Reyna argues that it is also Boasian, because it recognizes and embraces the relationship between the biological and cultural. He proposes that a Boasian social anthropology might be a way to make anthropology the central social, cultural and biological discipline for studying the human condition. This challenging work rethinks a number of topics crucial to understanding the human condition - brain, mind, culture - the social and causality. Written in an accessible and entertaining style, it will be essential reading for anyone studying and practicing anthropology, as well as philosophers of the mind, psychologists and cognitive scientists.