ABSTRACT
Cognitive anthropology is, fundamentally, a form of materialism. It is characterised by the recognition that social life is made possible by the activity of the brain, and an understanding that this activity relies upon a cognitive architecture that is a product of our evolution as a social species. It refuses to treat culture as disembodied, but grounds it in our mental capacities. A serious engagement with cognition requires that author scrutinise the epistemological foundations of our discipline. Pascal Boyer describes religion as 'parasitic' upon our cognitive framework. That is, it makes use of capacities that people have anyway and use in other domains of activity. Pascal recognises that the anthropological record is full of such attributions of agentive behaviour. Cognitive approach seeks to account for the material causes that underlie a social form, grounding it in universal 'mechanisms' in the brain.
