Cognition (Anthropology)

Expanded Personal Networks as a Cognitive Stimulus: An Application to the Paleolithic

by John Bolender

Hints of Beauty in Social Cognition: Broken Symmetries in Mental Dynamics

by John Bolender

Cultures of meta-cognition: developing an anthropological theory of belief

by Jonathan Mair

Paper given at the Goldsmith's anthropology seminar, 7 December 2011.

Children’s Beliefs About Themselves as Babies, In Utero and Before They Were Conceived

by Natalie Emmons

Paper presented at the XIII biennial meeting of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology, Edinburgh.

***DISCLAIMER***

This paper is a nice introduction to the work I'm doing. Although, the results given here... more ***DISCLAIMER***

This paper is a nice introduction to the work I'm doing. Although, the results given here are not entirely representative of the full data set which will be ready soon (ie., only the chi-square results are given here, which are shown to differ slightly from the ANOVA results I now have). If you'd like to cite any findings, please contact me directly, and I will send more comprehensive results.

Hovers, E., 2009. Learning from mistakes: flaking accidents and knapping skills in the assemblage of A. L. 894 (Hadar, Ethiopia). In: Schick, K., Toth, N. (Eds.), The Cutting Edge: New Approaches to the Archaeology of Human Origins. Stone Age Institute, Gosport, pp. 137-150.

by Erella Hovers

Activist Knowledge: Interrogating the Ideational Landscape of Social Movements

by Dr S A Hosseini

International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Volume 5, Issue 5, pp.339-358. Article: Print (Spiral Bound). Article: Electronic

Over the past three decades, there has been a rising concern about the ability of social theories to address the... more Over the past three decades, there has been a rising concern about the ability of social theories to address the idea-construction (ideational) processes in social and political movements. This article argues that in spite of the recent growing emphasis on the cognitive dimension of collective action, many theoretical attempts and the studies influenced by them evidence significant shortcomings in explaining the (trans)formation of ideas and ideologies in social movements. These shortcomings stem from a failure at the metatheoretical level, that is, their failure to hold an integrative and interdisciplinary approach to comprehending the relation between changing social structures, dynamic patterns of experience and the social consciousness of actors. In proposing a solution, the article starts with defining the ideational landscape of social movements by introducing the concept of 'activist knowledge'. Then, it will argue for the necessity of developing an integrative, interdisciplinary, meta-theoretical framework through a radical reconstruction of old metaphors like agency and structure in the light of the recent global changes.

BETWEEN SALMON AND CEREMONY: NEWGRANGE AND SEASONAL RITUAL IN THE BOYNE VALLEY

by Robert Hensey

Draft only

Traditional archaeological narratives have copper-fastened the link between passage tombs and agriculture to such a... more Traditional archaeological narratives have copper-fastened the link between passage tombs and agriculture to such a degree that the continued use of wild resources in association with the Irish passage tomb tradition has been neglected in our attempts to understand the nascent agricultural communities of Ireland and Britain. In this paper, I argue that the great salmon run on the Boyne River would not have been ignored or shunted irrespective of what other resources became available to the monument builders. Rather, it is suggested that not only had riverine resources such as the salmon a pivotal role in lives of people previous to the arrival of domesticated plants and animals but that they would have continued to play an important role, both economically and ideologically, in the lives of the Boyne Valley communities. The location of the Boyne Valley passage tomb complex in the bend of the Boyne River would imply that the salmon’s runs would have been visible seasonal markers in the lives of this community. Above all, the timing of the salmons spawning run would have been especially significant, and may have been connected with the rituals that took place over the winter solstice period at Newgrange. These rites may have centred upon the perceived return of the ancestors and the forces of rejuvenation in the form of the salmon. This paper examines the possibility that there is evidence for this connection between the salmon and ceremony to be found in the seasonal rhythms, built architecture, and megalithic art of the Boyne Valley.