Cultural Domain Analysis (CDA) is a theoretical and methodological approach rooted in cognitive anthropology that investigates how people in a particular culture organize, structure, and perceive ideas.
Understanding Cultural Domain Analysis
At its core, Cultural Domain Analysis (CDA) is a specialized method originating from the field of cognitive anthropology. As defined, it is "a theoretical and methodological approach rooted in cognitive anthropology that investigates how people in a particular culture organize, structure, and perceive ideas." This means it delves into the shared cognitive frameworks and models that members of a cultural group use to make sense of their world.
Instead of focusing on individual thoughts, CDA examines the collective understanding and classification of concepts within a specific cultural context. It seeks to uncover the underlying principles by which a community categorizes, relates, and interprets different elements or ideas (domains) of their experience.
What CDA Investigates
CDA focuses on specific "cultural domains," which are essentially collections of related ideas or concepts that people think and talk about. Examples of such domains might include:
- Kinship terms: How are family relations understood and categorized?
- Illnesses and treatments: How do people classify health problems and their remedies?
- Foods and plants: What categories exist for edible or useful natural items?
- Emotions: How are feelings defined and related to each other?
- Occupations or social roles: How are different jobs or roles understood within the community structure?
By analyzing these domains, researchers using CDA aim to:
- Identify the structure of the domain (e.g., hierarchies, networks, contrasts).
- Understand how items within the domain are organized and related to one another.
- Explore how people perceive and evaluate different items or concepts within that domain.
- Uncover shared cultural models or mental maps that guide people's understanding and behavior.
Through specific data collection techniques (often involving sorting tasks, listing tasks, or ranking) and analytical methods (like multidimensional scaling or cluster analysis), CDA provides insights into the cognitive architecture of a culture and the shared knowledge systems that bind its members.
