Toward a cultural psychology of voluntary action beliefs

The concept and perception of voluntary action develops through systematic violations of intuitive cognitive assumptions. It bears a resemblance, therefore, to concepts Pascal Boyer calls "religious." However, Boyer understands the development of concepts as a purely cognitive process, and neglects the processes that give rise to emotional attachment. This article argues that the cognitive account must be supplemented by a theory of the emotions, and suggests that "attachment," as John Bowlby understood it, frames and constrains the development of concepts such as "action." Ethnographic data from India are used to test the hypothesis that action concepts develop first and foremost in relation to the experience of emotional attachment in early childhood.