What anthropologists can learn from psychologists, and the other way around

Abstract

Abstract The Mind and Spirit project uses methods from anthropology and psychology to explore the way understandings of what English‐speakers call ‘the mind’ may shape the kinds of events people experience and deem ‘spiritual’. In this piece, we step back to reflect on this interdisciplinary approach. We observe that, in some ways, both fields are in parallel states of critical self‐reflection around explanation and comparison: anthropology in the wake of the postmodern and postcolonial critique; and psychology in response to a pair of recent crises about the overreliance on Western samples and the reproducibility of psychological research. We suggest that combining our methods may go some way towards giving each field more confidence in its research. Joint fieldwork with specific point‐by‐point comparison is not common in either anthropology or psychology. We found it fruitful and commend it to others.

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