Cognitive aspects of anthropology of ethnicity

Abstract

This paper reviews the current trends in anthropology of ethnicity, with special reference to cognitive aspects. It is argued that domain-specific cognition is fundamentally biased by human evolution, and that human cognition of ethnicity may be essentialist.

Keywords

• evolution
• ethnicity
• domain-specific nature of human cognition
• psycho­logical essentialism
• primordialism
• instrumentalism