| When people pursue similar goals with similar means, it is reasonable to suppose that the constraints of the problem exert pressures toward conformity and response homogeneity. In extreme cases, conformity among successful problem-solvers is literally guaranteed because some problems have unique solutions, e.g., the coding-breaking problem "DONALD + GERALD = ROBERT" (where each letter stands for a different integer from 0 to 9, and D = 5). Few natural situations, however, exert such stringent constraints on possible solutions, with the consequence being that intracultural variability is quite common in problem-solving situations. Reasons for this include: (1) Sometimes a problem permits several satisfactory solutions; these may differ in terms of the resources or skills necessary for implementation. (2) Sometimes the very nature of a problem fosters multiple optimizing strategies among competitors. (3) Sometimes people acting in the "same" situation, from an observer's viewpoint, are actually pursuing multiple and different sets of goals. (4) Sometimes actors prefer different solutions simply because they have framed the same problem to themselves differently. And, (5) some problems are dilemmas, i.e., they have no known solutions. Thus, even when people of similar cultural and personal backgrounds are trying to solve very similar problems, we should expect to find intracultural variability, manifest as inter-individual differences and/or cognitive pluralism. The paper uses ethnographic examples, drawn principally from commercial fishing, to illustrate these points and suggests that variability is as much a fact of cultural systems as is conformity. |