New Book “The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology”

Daniel Lende and Greg Downey of the Neuroanthropology blog have just brought out a new book, published by MIT Press, which is wonderfully titled (similarly to the 2009 conference) “The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology”. The book is available as hardcover or kindle version.

@daniel_lende is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida.

@gregdowney1 is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Macquarie University, Sydney

New Journal “Culture and Brain” – Open for Submissions

The first journal dedicated exclusively to cultural neuroscience has been launched and is now ready to receive manuscripts! The journal is titled “Culture and Brain“, published by Springer and edited by Prof. Shihui Han of the CSCN Lab in Peking. For the submission system, link here.

The journal “covers the mutual interaction between culture and human cognition and behavior”, “explores the influence of brain/sociocultural interaction on cognitive function and neural mechanisms” and “includes an expansive range of disciplines, from neuroscience to biology to anthropology and philosophy”.

Psychology for the Third Millennium: Integrating Cultural and Neuroscience Perspectives

Psychology for the Third Millennium: Integrating Cultural and Neuroscience Perspectives

edited by Rom Harré and Fathali M. Moghaddam

Sage, 2012

Description

As the 21st Century opened, the discipline of psychology seemed to be separating into two radically distinct domains. Qualitative and Cultural Psychology focused on the discursive means for the management of meaning in a world of norms, while Neuropsychology and Neuroscience focused on the investigation of brain processes. These two domains can be reconciled in a hybrid science that brings them together into a synthesis more powerful than anything psychologists have achieved before. For the first time, there is the possibility of a general psychology in which the biological and the cultural aspects of human life coalesce into a unitas multiplex, unity in diversity. This textbook ambitiously aims to and succeeds in providing this unity.

Critical Neuroscience: A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience

Critical Neuroscience: A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience
edited by  Suparna Choudhury and Jan Slaby

Wiley-Blackwell, 2012

Description

Critical Neuroscience brings together multi-disciplinary scholars from around the world to explore key social, historical and philosophical studies of neuroscience, and to analyze the socio-cultural implications of recent advances in the field.

- explores the creative potential for engaging experimental neuroscience with social studies of neuroscience

- Furthers the dialogue between neuroscience and the disciplines of the social sciences and humanities

- Transcends traditional scepticism, introducing novel ideas about ‘how to be critical’ in and about science

- Features contributions from eminent scholars including Steven Rose, Joseph Dumit, Laurence Kirmayer, Shaun Gallagher, Fernando Vidal, Allan Young and Joan Chiao

 

Symposium on Empathy: Self, Society, Culture – November 2011

 

 

 

 

Indiana University organizes a symposium titled “Empathy: Self, Society, Culture” on November 11-12, 2011.

Growing out of a two-year grant-supported project on “Virtuous Empathy: Scientific and Humanistic Investigations” this symposium aims to explore theories and practices of empathy. Papers are invited to explore both virtuous and vicious forms of empathy, and to do so from a variety of perspectives. Proposals for papers are invited in three broad categories: Empathy and Psychology; Empathy and Ethics; and Empathy in Culture, History, and Society.

The Importance of Cross-Cultural Neuroethics in (Cultural) Neuroscience

The Dana Foundation has recently published a piece by Moheb Costandi, titled “Cross-Cultural Neuroethics: Look Both Ways“, pointing at the challenges neuroscientists are facing when they are doing research in cultures that do not share their own system of values and beliefs.

“In the Western World, we may take it for granted that our scientific values and ethical concepts are universal, but this is not the case.(…) Indigenous peoples, for example, have fundamentally different worldviews and philosophies, and do not subscribe to our scientific values.”