Chapter 14
The Archaeology of the Mind
Outline
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What’s a Symbol?
The Peace Pipe as Ritual Weapon
Exploring Ancient Chavín Cosmology
Blueprints for an Archaeology of the
Mind
• Upper Paleolithic Cave Art
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.
What’s 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.
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.
Religion
• A set of beliefs about one’s relation to
the supernatural.
• A society’s mechanism for relating
supernatural phenomena to the
everyday world.
– Ritual - Behaviors that must be
performed in a particular order under
particular circumstances.
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.
Upper Paleolithic Cave Art
• The Upper Paleolithic (40,000–10,000 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.
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).
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.”
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.
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 ends—both good and ill.
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.
Map of Lascaux
Quick Quiz
1. Cognitive Archaeology includes the
study of:
A. Principles, philosophies and values by
which human societies are governed.
B. The ways the world, the supernatural, or
human values are conveyed in art.
C. Why cultures developed horticulture.
D. A, B and C.
E. A and B only.
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.
2. The Hopewell Interaction Sphere included
included many different peoples that spoke
a single language and shared a common
religious belief.
A. True
B. False
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.
3. A _______ explanation demonstrates how
the universe developed and describes what
principles keep it together.
Answer: cosmological
• A cosmological explanation demonstrates
how the universe developed and describes
what principles keep it together.
4. According to the paradigm known as
structuralism, humans understand reality
according to the structures in their
communities.
A. True
B. False
Answer: B. False
• According to the paradigm known as
structuralism, humans understand reality as
paired oppositions
5. A ritual in which an individual seeks
visions through starvation, dehydration,
and exposure is called a ____ ______.
Answer: vision quest
• A ritual in which an individual seeks
visions through starvation, dehydration,
and exposure is called a vision quest.