Measuring Shared Collective Knowledge and Belief Systems

Measurement is important for research practices in social sciences and is part and parcel of an efficient investigation in any social context. Measuring abstract cognitive entities such as social knowledge and beliefs that characterize the collective culture has its nuances. In this chapter I address the issue of measuring shared collective knowledge and belief systems. I begin by outlining the theoretical assumptions behind measuring collective constructs in cognitive anthropology and go over the principles of computing inter-informant agreement (consensus) present in the ethnographic data. I then transition to the discussion of cultural models as an instantiation of intersubjectively shared collective beliefs. Finally, I lay out several strategies that can be useful for field researchers to extract and explore cultural models by means of quantitative methods.