What is the specificity of the human race within nature? How is its history to be explained? What impact do material realities, natural and man-made, have on human beings? What role does thought, in all its dimensions, play in the production of social relations? How are the human sciences to be advanced today? These are among the crucial questions confronted by Godelier in this key book of contemporary social theory. Its point of departure lies in a fact and a hypothesis. The fact: in contrast to other social animals, human beings do not just live in society; they produce society in order to live. The hypothesis: because they have the unique capacity to appropriate and transform nature, they produce culture and create history. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork and ranging over the most diverse ethnographic data, Godelier substantiates his case by attending to the analysis of both social relations of production and the production of social relations. In a sustained challenge to currently dominant schemas, he offers a series of highly original theses on the constitution, reproduction and transformation of societies, recasting the distinction between infrastructure and superstructures, illuminating the relations between economic determination and political/ideological dominance, and clarifying the character of ideology and its central role in the perpetuation of dominance and exploitation.

Phrenology was the most popular mental science of the Victorian age. From American senators to Indian social reformers, this new mental science found supporters stretching around the globe. Materials of the Mind tells the story of how phrenology changed the world--and how the world changed phrenology. This is a story of skulls from the Arctic, plaster casts from Haiti, books from Bengal, and letters from the Pacific. Drawing on far-flung museum and archival collections, and addressing sources in six different languages, Materials of the Mind is the first substantial account of science in the nineteenth century as part of global history. It shows how the circulation of material culture underpinned the emergence of a new materialist philosophy of the mind, while also demonstrating how a global approach to history could help us reassess issues such as race, technology, and politics today.

An account of the different ways in which things have become cognitive extensions of the human body, from prehistory to the present. 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.

'A clear, concise, easy-to-read account of the issues between sex, gender and feminism . . . an important book' Evening Standard 'A call for cool heads at a time of great heat and a vital reminder that revolutions don't always end well' Sunday Times Material Girls is a timely and trenchant critique of the influential theory that we all have an inner feeling known as a gender identity, and that this feeling is more socially significant than our biological sex. Professor Kathleen Stock surveys the philosophical ideas that led to this point, and closely interrogates each one, from De Beauvoir's statement that, 'One is not born, but rather becomes a woman' (an assertion she contends has been misinterpreted and repurposed), to Judith Butler's claim that language creates biological reality, rather than describing it. She looks at biological sex in a range of important contexts, including women-only spaces and resources, healthcare, epidemiology, political organization and data collection. Material Girls makes a clear, humane and feminist case for our retaining the ability to discuss reality, and concludes with a positive vision for the future, in which trans rights activists and feminists can collaborate to achieve some of their political aims.

Leading scholars respond to the famous proposition by Andy Clark and David Chalmers that cognition and mind are not located exclusively in the head.

Stone Cold Mental Volume I In this series I'll share with you my personal collection of mentalism I've built up over the past decade and a half or so. The 13 items to follow are just a small sample of what's to come. All of this material has never been published anywhere prior to this series. In this first volume, you'll find ten effects in a few different categories, namely ESP, tarot, "time", bizarre, and "luck". Plus 3 bonus ideas including an effect specifically for magicians as well as a utility idea, and a fun presentational idea for your stand up/stage show. Also included you'll find 8 QR Codes with links to video footage, a secret website, and a whole bunch of other stuff! Step inside and join me on the journey to de-boring-ify your mentalism. Why be boring when you can be Stone Cold Mental! Inevitability A prediction is openly placed on the table. The spectator truly shuffles a packet of ESP cards then (without the mentalist ever touching the packet) deals them out on to the table stopping whenever they want. The prediction, of course, is correct. The spectator's choice is truly a free choice. Extra Sensory Pendulum The mentalist finds the spectator's thought of ESP card with a pendulum. Then the spectator finds the mentalist's thought of ESP card using a pendulum. The spectator truly has a free thought of ESP card. There is no force. Torched Tarot What follows is a very powerful moment of wonder. This will be a true connecting moment with your "spectator." The fact is, that this is more meant for a private one-on-one meeting with the spectator as a "sitter" and you as a "reader." This truly is very scary-powerful. Please, please, use it wisely and responsibly. Nightmarot The haruspex predicts a thought of tarot card in just about the creepiest way possible. Don't worry, no entrails or sacrificed animals were involved. The Persistence of Time One spectator reveals the merely thought of hour of another spectator. Time Enough at Last This effect is the same as the preceding effect. However, rather than drawings of clocks, actual watches are used, and the presentation is quite a bit different and has an overall different kind of vibe. Hotel Hell The key to the hotel room of a serial killer is shown to have a spiritual connection to the murderer causing a fireball to appear from nowhere, and other super creepy things. The Purge A voodoo doll wrapped in a cloth is seen to move. Then a pin appears in the voodoo doll at the exact place chosen by the spectator. Bone Count A spectator secretly chooses a number on a die. Another spectator chooses 1 of 6 facedown cards (i.e., one for each number on a die). The card chosen matches the number on the die. As a kicker, the other cards are shown to be completely blank. No equivoque. LOST Lottery The mental mind manipulator is able to hear the thoughts of the piqued participants as they think of some lottery numbers.