Excavating the Mind
Title | Excavating the Mind PDF eBook |
Author | Helle Juel Jensen |
Publisher | Aarhus Universitetsforlag |
Pages | 347 |
Release | 2012-05-31 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 877124428X |
Excavating the Mind deals with the relationship between the material culture of humans, i.e. our technologies, arts and environments, and our mental worlds. Emphasizing the close interdependence of mind and matter, the volume resonates with current developments within sociology, psychology and the cognitive sciences, yet it aims to supplement the focus on modern, predominantly Western societies and individuals with studies of different cultural contexts and processes in the evolutionary and historical past as well as the ethnographic present. With contributions from cognitive and social archaeology as well as anthropology, semiotics and the history of religion, the book combines well-illustrated case studies covering a wide chronological and geographic span - from Neolithic Europe to the present-day South Pacific - with incisive discussion of particular theoretical issues in the study of mind and material culture. Excavating the Mind is an original contribution to the multidisciplinary debate on the uniquely human entanglement of complex material cultures and mental worlds.
Excavating Indiana Jones
Title | Excavating Indiana Jones PDF eBook |
Author | Randy Laist |
Publisher | McFarland |
Pages | 219 |
Release | 2020-04-03 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 1476639728 |
With his signature bullwhip and fedora, the rousing sounds of his orchestral anthem, and his eventful explorations into the arcana of world religions, Indiana Jones--archeologist, adventurer, and ophidiophobe--has become one of the most recognizable heroes of the big screen. Since his debut in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones has gone on to anchor several sequels, and a fifth film is currently in development. At the same time, the character has spilled out into multiple multimedia manifestations and has become a familiar icon within the collective cultural imagination. Despite the longevity and popularity of the Indiana Jones franchise, however, it has rarely been the focus of sustained criticism. In Excavating Indiana Jones, a collection of international scholars analyzes Indiana Jones tales from a variety of perspectives, examining the films' representation of history, cultural politics, and identity, and also tracing the adaptation of the franchise into comic books, video games, and theme park attractions.
Excavating the Memory Palace
Title | Excavating the Memory Palace PDF eBook |
Author | Seth Long |
Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
Pages | 254 |
Release | 2020-12-14 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 022669528X |
With the prevalence of smartphones, massive data storage, and search engines, we might think of today as the height of the information age. In reality, every era has faced its own challenges of storing, organizing, and accessing information. While they lacked digital devices, our ancestors, when faced with information overload, utilized some of the same techniques that underlie our modern interfaces: they visualized and spatialized data, tying it to the emotional and sensory spaces of memory, thereby turning their minds into a visual interface for accessing information. In Excavating the Memory Palace, Seth David Long mines the history of Europe’s arts of memory to find the origins of today’s data visualizations, unearthing how ancient constructions of cognitive pathways paved the way for modern technological interfaces. Looking to techniques like the memory palace, he finds the ways that information has been tied to sensory and visual experience, turning raw data into lucid knowledge. From the icons of smart phone screens to massive network graphs, Long shows us the ancestry of the cyberscape and unveils the history of memory as a creative act.
Excavating English
Title | Excavating English PDF eBook |
Author | Ruth A. Johnston |
Publisher | |
Pages | 168 |
Release | 2003-06-01 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9780982537732 |
Excavating English is a curriculum designed for ages 12 and up. It explores the multicultural roots of the English language from 4000 BC to present day. The text provides over 150 pages of information, trivia, word games, activities and Internet links (including a playlist of supplemental videos). The first chapters give an introduction to linguistics, phonetics and phonology. The text then traces English from the shores of the Black Sea (Proto-Indo-European) through the history of the Germanic peoples, the Danes, the Anglo-Saxons, the Normans, and the great wordsmiths of the Renaissance. The history continues as English crosses the ocean to America, then is influenced by immigrants from all over the world. The text is not only informative, but is lively and interesting, and the activities included after each chapter make the curriculum very interactive.
Excavating Nauvoo
Title | Excavating Nauvoo PDF eBook |
Author | Benjamin C. Pykles |
Publisher | U of Nebraska Press |
Pages | 416 |
Release | 2010-04-01 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 080322835X |
This detailed study of the excavation and restoration of the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, reveals the roots of historical archaeology. In the late 1960s, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sponsored an archaeology program to authentically restore the city of Nauvoo, which was founded along the Mississippi River in the 1840s by the Mormons as they moved west. Non-Mormon scholars were also interested in Nauvoo because it was representative of several western frontier towns in this era. As the archaeology and restoration of Nauvoo progressed, however, conflicts arose, particularly regarding control of the site and its interpretation for the public. The field of historical archaeology was just coming into its own during this period, with myriad perspectives and doctrines being developed and tested. The Nauvoo site was one of the places where the discipline was forged. This well-researched account weaves together multiple viewpoints in examining the many contentious issues surrounding the archaeology and restoration of the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, providing an illuminating picture of the early days of professional historical archaeology.
Material Agency
Title | Material Agency PDF eBook |
Author | Carl Knappett |
Publisher | Springer Science & Business Media |
Pages | 268 |
Release | 2008-12-15 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 0387747117 |
Thus far an ‘agent’ in the social sciences has always meant someone whose actions bring about change. In this volume, the editors challenge this position and examine the possibility that agency is not a solely human property. Instead, this collection of archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists and other social scientists explores the symbiotic relationships between humans and material entities (a key opening a door, a speed bump raising a car) as they engage with one another.
The Mind Parasites
Title | The Mind Parasites PDF eBook |
Author | Colin Wilson |
Publisher | Monkfish Book Publishing |
Pages | 181 |
Release | 2013-05-15 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 1939681081 |
Wilson has blended H.P. Lovecraft's dark vision with his own revolutionary philosophy and unique narrative powers to produce a stunning, high-tension story of vaulting imagination. A professor makes a horrifying discovery while excavating a sinister archaeological site. For over 200 years, mind parasites have been lurking in the deepest layers of human consciousness, feeding on human life force and steadily gaining a foothold on the planet. Now they threaten humanity's extinction. They can be fought with one weapon only: the mind, pushed to--and beyond--its limits. Pushed so far that humans can read each other's thoughts, that the moon can be shifted from its orbit by thought alone. Pushed so that man can at last join battle with the loathsome parasites on equal terms.