Neuroanthropology and Its Applications

This collection includes research on engineering robots for emotional interaction, the vulnerability of soldiers to post-traumatic stress disorder, cognitive dimensions of political and science communication, sports coaching across cultures, intergenerational health problems in Aboriginal populations, the political economy of addiction treatment, the impact of poverty on the developing brain, psychiatric care for Nepali Bhutanese refugees, and how culture and institutions affect psychosis. These cases show how a holistic approach to neural development and structure in social contexts provides a powerful new way to apply anthropology.

Neuroanthropology and Its Applications: An Introduction
Daniel H. Lende and Greg Downey

Cultural Variation in Rugby Skills: A Preliminary Neuroanthropological Report
Greg Downey

Sensical Translations: Three Case Studies in Applied Cognitive Communications
Eric H. Lindland and Nathaniel Kendall-Taylor

Empathy and the Robot: A Neuroanthropological Analysis
Katie Glaskin

Applying Nepali Ethnopsychology to Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Mental Illness and Prevention of Suicide among Bhutanese Refugees
Brandon A. Kohrt, Sujen M. Maharjan, Damber Timsina, and James Griffith

Toward an Applied Neuroanthropology of Psychosis: The Interplay of Culture, Brains, and Experience
Neely Anne Laurenzo Myers

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Neuroanthropology: Stopping PTSD before it Begins
Gina L. Collura and Daniel H. Lende

Life History and Real Life: An Example of Neuroanthropology in Aboriginal Australia
Victoria K. Burbank

From White Bullets to Black Markets and Greened Medicine: The Neuroeconomics and Neuroracial Politics of Opioid Pharmaceuticals
Helena Hansen and Mary E. Skinner

Poverty Poisons the Brain
Daniel H. Lende

Additional Material

Biosketches of Contributors

Daniel Lende (dlende@usf.edu) is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida. His work focuses on the integration of neuroscience and anthropology, behavioral health, addiction, stress and trauma, and applied anthropology. He has done mixed-method research in Colombia and the United States. He is cofounder of the Neuroanthropology.net blog, now part of the Public Library of Science blogs, and coeditor of the 2012 volume The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology from MIT Press. His work has also appeared in Ethos, Addiction, Qualitative Health Research, and Addiction Research and Theory.

Greg Downey (greg.downey@mq.edu.au) is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He has been conducting ethnographic and psychological research on sports, dance, and skill acquisition since 1992 in Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. His first book, Learning Capoeira: Lessons in Cunning from an Afro-Brazilian Art (Oxford, 2005), was a study of the Afro-Brazilian dance and martial art, and he has published extensively on capoeira, no-holds-barred fighting, coaching, dance, music and other skills. Downey is especially interested in the ways physical education and training regimes in different cultures generate distinctive physiological capacities, behavior patterns, sensory abilities, and skill sets. His current research is on rugby training in Australia, New Zealand, and among Pacific Islanders. He is cofounder of the Neuroanthropology.net weblog, now part of the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Blogs, and coeditor of the 2012 MIT Press volume, The Encultured Brain: An Introduction to Neuroanthropology.