Consciousness, Creativity, and Self at the Dawn of Settled LifeIan Hodder Over recent years, a number of scholars have argued that the human mind underwent a cognitive revolution in the Neolithic. This volume seeks to test these claims at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey and in other Neolithic contexts in the Middle East. It brings together cognitive scientists who have developed theoretical frameworks for the study of cognitive change, archaeologists who have conducted research into cognitive change in the Neolithic of the Middle East, and the excavators of the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük who have over recent years been exploring changes in consciousness, creativity and self in the context of the rich data from the site. Collectively, the authors argue that when detailed data are examined, theoretical evolutionary expectations are not found for these three characteristics. The Neolithic was a time of long, slow and diverse change in which there is little evidence for an internal cognitive revolution. |
Contents
Marion Benz | 16 |
HUNTERGATHERER HOMEMAKING? BUILDING LANDSCAPE | 31 |
WHEN TIME BEGINS TO MATTER | 65 |
A DISTRIBUTED | 90 |
CONSCIOUS TOKENS? | 107 |
BRICK SIZES AND ARCHITECTURAL REGULARITIES AT NEOLITHIC | 133 |
THE MERONOMIC MODEL OF COGNITIVE CHANGE | 153 |
CONTAINERS AND CREATIVITY IN THE LATE NEOLITHIC UPPER | 168 |
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION IN THE GEOMETRIC WALL PAINTINGS | 190 |
PERSONAL MEMORY THE SCAFFOLDED MIND AND COGNITIVE | 209 |
ADORNING THE SELF | 230 |
FROM PARTS TO A WHOLE? EXPLORING CHANGES IN FUNERARY | 250 |
FROM HOUSES TO HUMANS AT ÇATALHÖYÜK | 273 |
Notes | 289 |
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Common terms and phrases
adornment Ain Ghazal Akkermans alhöyük Anatolia ancient animal Ankara Ankara Monograph Archaeology Press architecture areas argued ation beads Bennison-Chapman Benz body bricks British Institute buildings Çatal Çatalhöyük cognitive archaeology cognitive change communities complex construction context Cotsen Institute creativity cyclical deposits distributed cognition Early East emergence Epipalaeolithic episodic episodic memory evidence example excavated Figure figurines Gebel geometric clay objects Göbekli Tepe Goring-Morris groups Hodder houses höyük human hunter-gatherer Ian Hodder individuals Institute at Ankara Institute for Archaeological Institute of Archaeology inter interpretation Journal Kharaneh Kuijt landscape Late Neolithic Levant levels linear concepts lithic Maher material culture material symbols McDonald Institute Mellaart memory ment meronomic Mesopotamia Middle millennium mind mudbrick Natufian Neolithic Çatalhöyük Nieuwenhuyse Oxford pottery PPNB practices Pre-Pottery Neolithic Prehistory Renfrew Research ritual Schmandt-Besserat settlement shape social societies space specific stamp seals storage structures Tell Sabi Abyad tion tokens wall paintings Watkins