In this Book
- How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: The MIT Press
summary
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.
Table of Contents
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- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-iv
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xiii-xvi
- 1 Introduction
- pp. 1-20
- I Cognition and Material Culture
- 2 Rethinking the Archaeology of Mind
- pp. 23-34
- II Outline of a Theory of Material Engagement
- 4 The Extended Mind
- pp. 57-88
- 5 The Enactive Sign
- pp. 89-118
- 6 Material Agency
- pp. 119-150
- III Marking the Mental: Where Brain, Body, and Culture Conflate
- 7 Knapping Intentions and the Handmade Mind
- pp. 153-178
- 8 Thoughtful Marks, Lines, and Signs
- pp. 179-206
- 9 Becoming One with the Clay
- pp. 207-226
- 10 Epilogue: How Do Things Shape the Mind?
- pp. 227-250
- References
- pp. 257-292
Additional Information
ISBN
9780262315661
Related ISBN(s)
9780262019194
MARC Record
OCLC
966782521
Pages
304
Launched on MUSE
2017-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No