Presentation of the course's programme, bibliography and system of evaluation.

Introductory discussion of contemporary issues on symbolism and cognition.

The need for an interdisciplinary approach (anthropology vis a vis the neurosciences) and the relevance of a revisited ethnography (Tim Ingold in the Debated Mind, and Maurice Bloch's connectivist views on cultural cognition).

The problems of the Western-centric semantic (and rhetoric) conditioning of anthropological discourses.

The limitations of a materialist approach to cognition. Example:

António Damásio's Self comes to Mind: Constructing the conscious brain

John Searle's critical review of Damasio's Self comes to mind