ABSTRACT
In his edited volume of ethnoscience literature, Stephen A. Tyler proclaimed that the new field, which he called cognitive anthropology, constitutes a new theoretical orientation. It focuses on discovering how different peoples organize and use their cultures. As Ben Blount, in his recent summary of cognitive anthropology, puts it, the central contention was "that observable behavioral phenomena are recognized as expressions of more basic and fundamental underlying organizational order and principles". Charles Frake put the ideas of ethnoscience into practice in his fieldwork among the Subanun of Mindanao. In one of his most informative papers, he explored the decidedly nontrivial arena of medical knowledge or how the Subanan go about diagnosing disease. In an essay titled "The Ethnographic Study of Cognitive Systems", Charles Frake added some nuance to the conceptual arsenal of ethnoscience. At the same moment that ethnoscientists and cognitive anthropologists were mounting their attack on conventional anthropological concepts and methods, an alternative challenge was arising in France.
