Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement

4.1/5 ( ratings)

An increasingly influential school of thought in cognitive science views the mind as embodied, extended, and distributed rather than brain-bound or "all in the head." This shift in perspective raises important questions about the relationship between cognition and material culture, posing major challenges for philosophy, cognitive science, archaeology, and anthropology. In How Things Shape the Mind, Lambros Malafouris proposes a cross-disciplinary analytical framework for investigating the ways in which things have become cognitive extensions of the human body. Using a variety of examples and case studies, he considers how those ways might have changed from earliest prehistory to the present. Malafouris's Material Engagement Theory definitively adds materiality -- the world of things, artifacts, and material signs -- into the cognitive equation. His account not only questions conventional intuitions about the boundaries and location of the human mind but also suggests that we rethink classical archaeological assumptions about human cognitive evolution.

Language: English

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: MIT Press (MA)

Release: July 12, 2013

ISBN: 0262019191

ISBN 13: 9780262019194

How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement

4.1/5 ( ratings)

An increasingly influential school of thought in cognitive science views the mind as embodied, extended, and distributed rather than brain-bound or "all in the head." This shift in perspective raises important questions about the relationship between cognition and material culture, posing major challenges for philosophy, cognitive science, archaeology, and anthropology. In How Things Shape the Mind, Lambros Malafouris proposes a cross-disciplinary analytical framework for investigating the ways in which things have become cognitive extensions of the human body. Using a variety of examples and case studies, he considers how those ways might have changed from earliest prehistory to the present. Malafouris's Material Engagement Theory definitively adds materiality -- the world of things, artifacts, and material signs -- into the cognitive equation. His account not only questions conventional intuitions about the boundaries and location of the human mind but also suggests that we rethink classical archaeological assumptions about human cognitive evolution.

Language: English

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: MIT Press (MA)

Release: July 12, 2013

ISBN: 0262019191

ISBN 13: 9780262019194

More books from Colin Renfrew

Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Prehistory: The Making Of The Human Mind

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Before Civilization

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Loot, Legitimacy and Ownership: The Ethical Crisis in Archaeology

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Archaeology: The Key Concepts

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Centuries of Darkness

4.2/5 ( ratings)

The Birth of the Gods and the Origins of Agriculture

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The Ancient Mind: Elements of Cognitive Archaeology

3.2/5 ( ratings)

Figuring It Out: What Are We? Where Do We Come From?

The Sapient Mind: Archaeology Meets Neuroscience

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Becoming Human

4.7/5 ( ratings)

Archaeology

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Coins and Power in Late Iron Age Britain

The Cycladic Spirit: Masterpieces From The Nicholas P. Goulandris Collection

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Ritual, Play, and Belief in Evolution and Early Human Societies

Cognitive Life of Things: Recasting the Boundaries of the Mind

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Style and Society in Dark Age Greece: The Changing Face of a Pre-Literate Society 1100-700 BC

Rate this book!

Write a review?