Conclusion
Cognitive anthropology has helped to provide a bridge between culture and the functioning of the mind (D'Andrade 1995:251-252). It has helped reveal some of the inner workings of the human mind, and given us a greater understanding of how people order and perceive the world around them. Cognitive anthropology has something to offer each of anthropology’s four fields: archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology.
Cognitive anthropology deals with abstract theories regarding the nature of the mind. While there have been countless methods for accessing culture contained in the mind, questions remain about whether results in fact reflect how individuals organize and perceive society, or whether they are merely manufactured by investigators, having no foundation in their subjects’ reality (Romney 1999:105).
Moreover, it has significantly changed the face of cultural anthropology, particularly with respect to its methodological development. Cognitive methods are used in a variety of anthropological contexts and applied to a variety of subjects. While cognitive anthropology has relied on a strong tradition of linguistic and cultural approaches, perhaps its greatest challenge lay in demonstrating its applicability to the biological and archaeological subfields. In short, cognitive anthropology holds much promise for the future of cultural analysis.
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