Problem solving among nonliterate people

Abstract

Although philosophers of pragmatism have emphasized problem solving as a key human attribute, and this insight is readily born out by common sense, behavioral scientists have given inadequate attention to natural problem solving that takes place outside the laboratory. What scientists have done has been to take the analysis halfway, by looking at reified functions, but "functional" approaches have been generally repudiated so often because they make unwarranted assumptions about functionality. It is proposed that by working from the bottom up, looking at decisions that reflect indigenous appreciation of social functions and manipulate social systems in a sophisticated way, a far more effective type of functional analysis could be built, and that this type of analysis would dovetail nicely with evolutionary analyses.