The Archaeology of the Mind

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Chapter 14

• The Archaeology of the Mind

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Outline

• Whats a Symbol?
• The Peace Pipe as Ritual Weapon
• Exploring Ancient Chavín Cosmology
• Blueprints for an Archaeology of the Mind
• Upper Paleolithic Cave Art

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Cognitive Archaeology

• The study of aspects of ancient culture that are
  the product of the human mind
• The perception, description, and classification
  of the universe.
• The nature of the supernatural.
• Principles, philosophies and values by which
  human societies are governed.
• The ways the world, the supernatural, or human
  values are conveyed in art.

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Whats a Symbol?

• To most anthropologists, a symbol is an object or
  act (verbal or nonverbal) that by cultural
  convention stands for something with which it has
  no necessary connection.

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Hopewell Interaction Sphere

• A common set of symbols found in the midwestern
  United States between 200 BC and AD 400.
• Hopewell culture included many different
  peoples speaking different languages and living
  various ways, from the lower Mississippi to
  Minnesota, and from Nebraska to Virginia.
• These diverse people shared a unifying set of
  symbols that may indicate common religious
  beliefs.

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Religion

• A set of beliefs about ones relation to the
  supernatural.
• A societys mechanism for relating supernatural
  phenomena to the everyday world.
• Ritual - Behaviors that must be performed in a
  particular order under particular circumstances.

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Cosmology

• Study of the origin, large-scale structure, and
  future of the universe.
• A cosmological explanation demonstrates how the
  universe developed and describes what principles
  keep it together.
• Iconography - Art forms or writing systems that
  symbolically represent ideas about religion or
  cosmology.

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Upper Paleolithic Cave Art

• The Upper Paleolithic (40,00010,000 BC) in
  Europe is distinguished by the appearance of a
  complex technology of stone, bone, and antler as
  well as wall art, portable art objects, and
  decorated tools.
• Many Upper Paleolithic sites contain engraved,
  carved, or sculpted objects, and caves occupied
  by Upper Paleolithic peoples often contain wall
  paintings.

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Upper Paleolithic Cave Art Content

• Human beings rarely appear and, when they do,
  they are poorly executed in comparison with
  animal figures.
• Images often overlap, no one has identified a
  story or landscape.
• Provides vivid evidence documenting the range of
  animals living in Ice Age Europe, certain animals
  are emphasized (horses, aurochs, bison, ibex,
  stags, and reindeer).

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Structuralism

• Some scholars view the cave paintings as a
  structured code, drawing the paradigm known as
  structuralism.
• Structuralism argues that humans understand
  reality as paired oppositions.
• The concept of life, is meaningless without the
  concept of death.
• The concept of male means nothing without the
  concept of female.

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Totems

• A natural object, often an animal, from which a
  lineage or clan believes itself to be descended
  and/or with which lineage or clan members have
  special relations.

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Shaman

• One who has the power to contact the spirit world
  through trance, possession, or visions.
• On the basis of this ability, the shaman invokes,
  manipulates, or coerces the power of the spirits
  for socially recognized endsboth good and ill.

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Vision Quests

• A ritual in which an individual seeks visions
  through starvation, dehydration, and exposure
  considered in some cultures to be a way to
  communicate with the supernatural world.

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Map of Lascaux
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Quick Quiz
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• 1. Cognitive Archaeology includes the study of
• Principles, philosophies and values by which
  human societies are governed.
• The ways the world, the supernatural, or human
  values are conveyed in art.
• Why cultures developed horticulture.
• A, B and C.
• A and B only.

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Answer E

• Cognitive Archaeology includes the study of
  principles, philosophies and values by which
  human societies are governed and the ways the
  world, the supernatural, or human values are
  conveyed in art.

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• 2. The Hopewell Interaction Sphere included
  included many different peoples that spoke a
  single language and shared a common religious
  belief.
• True
• False

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Answer B. False

• The Hopewell Interaction Sphere included many
  different peoples speaking different languages
  who shared a unifying set of symbols that may
  indicate common religious beliefs.

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• 3. A _______ explanation demonstrates how the
  universe developed and describes what principles
  keep it together.

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Answer cosmological

• A cosmological explanation demonstrates how the
  universe developed and describes what principles
  keep it together.

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• 4. According to the paradigm known as
  structuralism, humans understand reality
  according to the structures in their communities.
  
• True
• False

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Answer B. False

• According to the paradigm known as structuralism,
  humans understand reality as paired oppositions

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• 5. A ritual in which an individual seeks visions
  through starvation, dehydration, and exposure is
  called a ____ ______.

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Answer vision quest

• A ritual in which an individual seeks visions
  through starvation, dehydration, and exposure is
  called a vision quest.