ABSTRACT
Patterns in behavior toward non-humans and the physical world in general are therefore intimately tied to emotion, perception, and cognition, both at individual and collective levels. The relationship of individual cognition, culture, and the human-environment relationship has been variously theorized, both within environmental anthropology and in the interdisciplinary discourse around human cognition. Cognition and its development arise both from universally shared biological structures and ecological constraints; and from culturally (and situationally) dependent interactions and experiences. Culture and cognition are therefore process, not merely content – a constantly shifting interrelationship of emergent individuals and emergent patterns in which those individuals are embedded and to which they contribute. Cultural modeling as a methodology can therefore not only contribute to policy or management decision-making through providing representations of emergent patterns in how people think and act in a certain domain, but can also feed into the process of changing these thoughts and actions.
