'Locating "mind" (and "soul") cross-culturally

Is there such a 'thing' as 'mind'? English speakers rarely pose this question; because the word exists in English it is assumed, a priori, that the mind exists. In Yolngu-matha (YM), and many other Australian Aboriginal languages, there is no word that translates as 'mind', and Anna Wierzbicka claims that no other language encodes the concept in its precise 'Anglo' form. We argue that if we unpack what we mean by 'mind' it may then prove useful as a comparative termor cross-cultural metacategoryfor exploring how other languages and cultures categorise mental states and processes'. We will explore whether 'mind' is a useful metacategory for exploring YM speakers' conceptualisations of mental states and processes. We conclude by observing that YM speakers, when speaking in English, sometimes use the word 'mind', and ask whether a YM speaker means the same thing by 'mind' as we native English speakers do.