Variability in Cultural Understandings of Consciousness: A Call for Dialogue with Native Psychologies

Indigenous concepts of consciousness are often relational and inseparable from environmental and religious ideas, varying widely across cultural groups. This exploration of variability among a few Indigenous understandings reveals that they view consciousness as layered, with global and local consciousness not in opposition. The study discusses how these adaptive concepts can inform contemporary scientific debates.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Investigation of Indigenous concepts and their meanings is highly inspirational for contemporary science because these concepts represent adaptive solutions in various environmental and social milieus. Past research has shown that conceptualizations of consciousness can vary widely between cultural groups from different geographical regions. The present study explores variability among a few of the thousands of Indigenous cultural understandings of consciousness. Indigenous concepts of consciousness are often relational and inseparable from environmental and religious concepts. Furthermore, this exploration of variability reveals the layers with which some Indigenous peoples understand their conscious experience of the world. Surprisingly, Indigenous understandings of global consciousness was found not to be in opposition to local consciousness. The final concluding section of this study discusses the usability of Indigenous concepts and meanings for recent scientific debates