---
abstract: 'This is the text of the Radcliffe-Brown Lecture in Social Anthopology 1999 (To appear in the Proceedings of the British Academy). In it, I argue that to approach society and culture in a naturalistic way, the domain of the social sciences must be reconceptualised by recognising only entities and processes of which we have a naturalistic understanding. These are mental representations and public productions, the processes that causally link them, the causal chains that bond these links, and the complex webs of such causal chains that criss-cross human populations over time and space. Such causal chains may distribute and stabilise representations and productions throughout a human population, thereby generating culture. The lecture introduces several conceptual tools useful for such a naturalistic approach, and illustrates their use with the case study of ritual activity in a Southern Ethiopian household.'
altloc:
  - http://perso.club-internet.fr/sperber/
  - http://www.dan.sperber.com
chapter: ~
commentary: ~
commref: ~
confdates: November 25
conference: Radcliffe-Brown Lecture in Social Anthopology 1999
confloc: 'British Academy, London'
contact_email: ~
creators_id: []
creators_name:
  - family: Sperber
    given: Dan
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
date: 1999
date_type: published
datestamp: 2000-03-23
department: ~
dir: disk0/00/00/04/04
edit_lock_since: ~
edit_lock_until: ~
edit_lock_user: ~
editors_id: []
editors_name: []
eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 404
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/404/1/Rad%2DBrow.htm
full_text_status: public
importid: ~
institution: ~
isbn: ~
ispublished: unpub
issn: ~
item_issues_comment: []
item_issues_count: 0
item_issues_description: []
item_issues_id: []
item_issues_reported_by: []
item_issues_resolved_by: []
item_issues_status: []
item_issues_timestamp: []
item_issues_type: []
keywords: 'anthropology, culture, society, naturalism, divination, phisolophy of the social sciences, philosophy of the cognitive sciences, cultural evolution, cognition, communication, Ethiopia, anthropological theory, epidemiology of representations, Radcliffe-Brown'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:53
latitude: ~
longitude: ~
metadata_visibility: show
note: ~
number: ~
pagerange: ~
pubdom: FALSE
publication: ~
publisher: ~
refereed: FALSE
referencetext: ~
relation_type: []
relation_uri: []
reportno: ~
rev_number: 8
series: ~
source: ~
status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:27:23
subjects:
  - evol-psy
  - phil-mind
  - phil-sci
  - soc-psy
succeeds: ~
suggestions: ~
sword_depositor: ~
sword_slug: ~
thesistype: ~
title: CONCEPTUAL TOOLS FOR A NATURAL SCIENCE OF SOCIETY AND CULTURE
type: confpaper
userid: 465
volume: ~
<script src="//archive-bar.soton.ac.uk/archive-bar.js"></script>