The Lari Soils Project in Peru - A methodology for combining cognitive and behavioral research

The authors pursue the relationship between cognitive and behavioral aspects of culture. An argument is developed for a methodology that effectively combines conclusions of different researchers to decipher "decision-making frames" of the agriculturalists at Lari. The focus of investigation was native Andean soil classification and management. Almost no data is presented. There is some discussion of the value of expert systems computer programs for modeling "ruled based decision models." Problems are discussed for interdisciplinary fieldwork. Advances in cultural anthropology generally come from one of three directions. First, anthropologists attempt to uncover cognitive aspects of an unfamiliar culture through the analysis of rules, plans, schemes, symbols and categories. Mental patterns may be unconscious and unformulated but capable of being discovered by posing the right questions, or conscious and explicit and the subject of ordinary conversation. Second, the actual events and activities are observed and analyzed in order to discover patterns of behavior. Lastly, mental rules, plans, and values are compared with actual cultural behavior to determine congruences, expections, and the rules for breaking the rules for behavior. Of the three, the relationship between cognitive and behavioral aspects of culture is the most problematic. While one expects some link between what people think they should do and what they actually do, the degree and character of the correspondence between cognitive rules and behavior is the subject of much controversy and may vary depending on cultural sphere or context. This paper presents a methodology for combining cognitive and behavioral research developed during the course of an interdisciplinary investigation of native Andea soil management. It involves teamwork, the construction of rule-based decision models using expert-system computer programs, and formal tests to assess the correspondence between the cognitive and behavioral models.