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Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access published online on August 4, 2009
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, doi:10.1093/scan/nsp024
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Neuroanthropology: a humanistic science for the study of the culture–brain nexus

Juan F. Domínguez Duque1,2, Robert Turner3, E. Douglas Lewis2 and Gary Egan1,4

1Howard Florey Institute, 2School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 3Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, and 4Centre for Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia

In this article, we argue that a combined anthropology/neuroscience field of enquiry can make a significant and distinctive contribution to the study of the relationship between culture and the brain. This field, which can appropriately be termed as neuroanthropology, is conceived of as being complementary to and mutually informative with social and cultural neuroscience. We start by providing an introduction to the culture concept in anthropology. We then present a detailed characterization of neuroanthropology and its methods and how they relate to the anthropological understanding of culture. The field is described as a humanistic science, that is, a field of enquiry founded on the perceived epistemological and methodological interdependence of science and the humanities. We also provide examples that illustrate the proposed methodological model for neuroanthropology. We conclude with a discussion about specific contributions the field can make to the study of the culture–brain nexus.

Keywords: neuroanthropology; brain; culture; humanistic science

Correspondence should be addressed to Juan F. Domínguez D., Howard Florey Institute, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. E-mail: jdo{at}unimelb.edu.au.

Received October 11, 2008. Accepted May 24, 2009.


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