Wrote a "History of human soul, in periods and peoples"

Peoples (Völker) were characterized by shared language and historical traditions

Völkgeist - the "personality" or character of a group of people

  populism, expressionism, pluralism (Berlin, 1976).

Basic ideas that are common to all peoples - foreshadows archetypes.

Psychic Unity of all people, common cultural traits developed

independently.

A vocal anti-racist, various in myths and ideas are due to material

conditions

Völkerpsychologie is "the science of the Völkgeist, that is the
theory of the elements and laws of mental life of peoples."

-Gathered his own ethnographic data which was published as
 Völkerpsychologie in ten volumes over two decades.

-Focused on describing the thought, belief and action of mankind.

-Divided all human culture into four stages or ages of

Primitive Age >Totemic Age > Age of Heroes and Gods ->Development to Humanity 
 Ages of Cultural Evolution

These ages do not denote abilities or mental endowments, rather activities are focused on different objects of the material world and the products of the worlds of community and individual consciousness: art, poetry, myths, customs, languages.

The Russian Cultural-Historical Psychology

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

 Leader and developer of "activity theory" which examines consciousness and symbolic understanding as a social process that is distinct from mechanical process.

A dialectical process is central where understanding of the whole replaces the extraction of elements from the whole. Fig. 1

Mind (cognition, perception, emotion, self, mental illness, developmental processes, .... all are "imbued with a cultural-historical significance" (Ratner, 2008, p. 8).

Culture mediates our experiences (i.e. a Happy Birthday Cake) with cultural significance.

Historically, the invention of tools brings an end to behavioural development in evolution, being replaced by cultural factors and forces.

Alexander Luria (1902-1977) - continued tradition of psychology as culture.
Later well known for books: "Mind of a Mnemonist" and "The man with a shattered world"

for more see Cole (1979).

Aleksei Leontiev (1903-1979) - "The development of higher forms of memory" (1931).

Berry et al., (1992) Cultural psychology is characterised by descriptive studies where:

•     Inferences are made from data that are unfounded.
•     Translation biases occur where meaning incommensurate.

-Human beings are intentional and actively construct and
re-construct the world into meaningful perspectives. Creating
concepts of self, emotion, values, knowledge, religion, spirits, . . .

-It involves "thinking through" others interpretations
of culture as expressed by and with others.

 Three basic Principles of Cultural Psychology

1. Mediation through Artifacts – the creation and use of material objects.
   E.g., the making and using of tools as part of a shared cultural world.

 
2. Historical Development - becoming a cultural being & helping others to become cultural beings is the process of enculturation.
   This capacity for development (individually and collectively) is the distinctive characteristic of our species. Culture is the fundamental human activity.

 
3. Practical Activity – the analysis of psychological functions must be grounded in human everyday activities.
    

Cultural psychology involves the deciphering of (subjective) meanings from (objective) artifacts, social institutions and cultural concepts

According to Cole (1996) Artifacts can be:

Primary: objects of everyday significance (Axe, bowl, needle).

Secondary: representations of those objects in terms of meaning and use
(recipes, traditional beliefs, norms, schemas, scripts, roles)

Tertiary: imaginative works (art, products, and creative processes).

(Ratner ,2008) Fig 2

Valsiner's (2014) Invitation to Cultural Psychology draws from the same sources

and offers a critique of Cross-Cultural Psychology
as well as Stern's Communication Model

Here culture is both internal and external and one must understand meaning making of artifacts and symbols,
including mythologies, as part of the internalization and externalization processes.

The "Other" Cultural Psychology (Evolutionary Cultural Psychology)

As described by Tonks (2010; 2018) Drawing from Campbell (1965) and Richarson & Boyd (2005) "Not by genes alone"

 Indigenous Psychologies

Doi ( 1971) - began to examine Japanese concept Amae in psychotherapy

Heelas & Lock (1981) - Examine the self across cultural traditions

Paranjpe (1984) - Draws out the traditional Indian psychology from Upanisads and Vedas

Kim & Berry (1993) - Draw widespread attention in psychology towards indigenous psychologies

Kim, Yang & Huang (2006) - (see your readings)

Adair (2006) - Reviews the Indigenization process from importation to autochnonization.

Indigenous Research: Methodologies of Resilience and Adaptation

E.S. Huaman & N.D. Martin (2020)

Theses authors review and build on the work of other recent publications in this area as they

”Revisit understanding of Indigenous research and analyze how its processes
maintain, honour, and shape self-determination and self-development as conceived
and described by Indigenous peoples” (p. 3)

This volume is directed not only at how to teach research skills, but also
“how Indigenous research transforms them” regardless of the academic or scientific discipline.

They set out to show how Indigenous researchers:

“select, use, challenge, critique and transform research methods in ways that create discussion
around how research is actually done with indigenous peoples; and how Indigenous epistemologies
are reconstructing research design entirely” (p. 4)

Eg. Natural selection is not the “survival of the fittest, smartest, or strongest” but rather recognizes the Indigenous people’s relationships with their environments and their very own survival takes into account resilience and adaptation. Rejecting the traditional western/European hegemony that threatens “environmental and human sustainability” (p.4)

There is explicit work against the traditional characterizations of Indigenous peoples
and a reclaiming of identities, epistemologies and a power shift to
“identify injustices, reveal strategies for facing problems, and contribute to vison-making for good futures” (p. 5).

There is also a “reclaiming connection with lands, cultural practices, spirituality, and languages” (p. 6)

Rejecting the dominant “top-down” positivist methodologies of privilege,

Indigenous research can turn to the four-oceans or four-corners approach of:
north, south, east & west - representing:

healing, mobilization, transformation and decolonization

The four ocean tides represent:
survival, recovery, development & self-determination

Research by and with Indigenous researchers involves ethics and cultural values,
meaningful relationship building and transparent research design.

While these are general principles, research needs to grounded in local traditions and communities

Indigenous research is dynamic, inclined toward innovation, and seeks to recover, maintain and protect Indigenous knowledges while also “fulfilling obligations to Western scientific methods for academic legitimacy” (p. 8).

Indigenous research works toward self-determination by:

• Research driven by Indigenous peoples
• A move to restore, reclaim, protect, maintain and revitalize local Indigenous knowledge
• Grounding in local Indigenous knowledge, building spaces where colonality meta-narratives are problematized
• Expanding dialogue within and between Indigenous communities-exploring other knowledge systems
• Being concerned with how Indigenous people benefit from such processes

A holistic approach is central recognizing that human beings are ecological being and our “place” cannot be separated from what we do.

“Life systems are comprised of environmental, economic, social, cultural,
linguistic, health, educational, political scientific and technological elements” (p. 9)

There is explicit recognition of the interconnectedness of these elements within Indigenous research ecologies, interest in decolonaity, challenges to European hegemony, and a movement towards:

“multilateral democratization of knowledge production … [that is] invested in inclusive processes of knowledge production that challenge and dismantle authoritarian, oligarchic and elitist knowledge hierarchies” (p. 10)

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