Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Cognitive Life of Things: Recasting the Boundaries of the Mind

4.2/5 ( ratings)

What does material culture do for the mind? How is human thought built into and executed through things? It is now been widely recognised that in ways that we have yet fully to understand, material culture shapes the manner in which people act, perceive and think. The understanding of the cognitive efficacy of past and present material culture becomes one of the most challenging research topics not simply for the archaeology and anthropology of human cognition but for the general field of the cognitive and social sciences. This volume, through a series of innovative theoretical papers and empirical case studies ranging from prehistory to the present, attempts to develop such a cross-disciplinary understanding and to offer some future directions of research. The main objective is to readdress the balance of the cognitive equation as presently conceived by bringing materiality into the cognitive fold. But how do we integrate material culture into existing theories of human cognition? How do we best approach the diachronic influence and evocative potential of things in the development of human intelligence? Contributors argue, from different disciplinary perspectives, for the need to expand the boundaries of mind beyond the individual in order to accommodate broader cognitive phenomena that include interactions among people, artefacts, space, and time.

Language: English

Pages: 156

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Release: May 31, 2010

ISBN: 1902937511

ISBN 13: 9781902937519

Cognitive Life of Things: Recasting the Boundaries of the Mind

4.2/5 ( ratings)

What does material culture do for the mind? How is human thought built into and executed through things? It is now been widely recognised that in ways that we have yet fully to understand, material culture shapes the manner in which people act, perceive and think. The understanding of the cognitive efficacy of past and present material culture becomes one of the most challenging research topics not simply for the archaeology and anthropology of human cognition but for the general field of the cognitive and social sciences. This volume, through a series of innovative theoretical papers and empirical case studies ranging from prehistory to the present, attempts to develop such a cross-disciplinary understanding and to offer some future directions of research. The main objective is to readdress the balance of the cognitive equation as presently conceived by bringing materiality into the cognitive fold. But how do we integrate material culture into existing theories of human cognition? How do we best approach the diachronic influence and evocative potential of things in the development of human intelligence? Contributors argue, from different disciplinary perspectives, for the need to expand the boundaries of mind beyond the individual in order to accommodate broader cognitive phenomena that include interactions among people, artefacts, space, and time.

Language: English

Pages: 156

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Release: May 31, 2010

ISBN: 1902937511

ISBN 13: 9781902937519

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)

How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement

4.1/5 ( 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

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

Rate this book!

Write a review?