The Fluidity of Mind: The Study of the Role of Material Culture as a Mnemonic Tool
Maryam Farsi
1
(
MA in Archaeology
)
Javad Hoseinzadeh Sadati
2
(
Kashan University
)
Keywords: Cognitive Evolutionary Archaeology, Material Culture, Memory in Action, Fluidity of Memory, Extended Cognition, Material Engagement Theory (MET),
Abstract :
This paper explores the role of material culture in shaping and sustaining human memory, a vital cognitive process essential for the continuity of human experiences and behaviors. Emphasizing the complex interactions between humans and objects, the study demonstrates that objects are not merely tools for interpreting past culture and behavior but actively contribute to the formation of human memory and cognition. Drawing on cognitive evolutionary archaeology, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy, the paper addresses a gap in the discourse of archaeological anthropology. It challenges the view that cultural materials are solely imbued with symbolic meanings, created to convey messages to past humans. Instead, it suggests that material culture functions as a mnemonic device, helping recall past memories and influencing human actions. The study posits that the human mind is a fluid entity, shaped through interactions with the body and the environment. Objects, in this view, act as extensions of the body, transforming perception and interaction with the world. The paper aims to provide a systematic review of existing research on the role of objects and cultural materials in memory formation and continuity. It seeks to answer key questions: How does material culture act as a memory trigger? What theories explain the relationship between memory and objects? How do objects influence human cognition, particularly in archaeological contexts? Through a systematic analysis, this review seeks to deepen our understanding of how material culture impacts memory and cognitive processes.
Boesch, C., & Boesch, H. 1990. Tool Use and Tool Making in Wild Chimpanzees. Folia Primatologica, 54(1-2), 86-99.
Chadwick, J. 1987. Linear B and Related Scripts. University of California Press.
Chomsky, N. 1965. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. 1966. Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought (1st Edition). New York: Harper & Row.
Clark, A. Malafouris, L. Knappett, C., 2008. Material Agency Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Approach, Springer Press.
Clark, A. 1997. Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again. MIT Press.
Clark, A. 1998. Where Brain, Body, and World Collide. Daedalus, 127(2).
Clark, A., & Chalmers, D. 1998. The Extended Mind. Analysis, 58, 7-19.
Coolidge, F. L., Haidle, M. N., Lombard, M., & Wynn, T. 2016. Bridging Theory and Bow Hunting: Human Cognition Evolution and Archaeology. Antiquity, 90.
Coolidge, F. L., & Wynn, T. 2001. Executive Functions of the Frontal Lobes and the Evolutionary Ascendancy of Homo Sapiens. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 11(2).
Coolidge, F. L., & Wynn, T. 2017. Cognitive Models in Palaeolithic Archaeology. Oxford University Press, USA.
Coolidge, F. L., & Wynn, T. 2018. The Rise of Homo Sapiens: The Evolution of Modern Thinking (2nd Edition). Oxford University Press.
Curie, A., & Killin, A. 2019. From Things to Thinking: Cognitive Archaeology. Biological Theory, 18(4).
Descartes, R. 1641. Meditations on First Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Delouize, A. M., Coolidge, F. L., & Wynn, T. 2016. Dopaminergic Systems Expansion and the Advent of Homo erectus. Quaternary International, Advanced Online Publication.
Falotico, T., & Ottoni, E. B. 2013. Stone Anvil Use by Wild Capuchin Monkeys: Tool Compatibility and Distance to Food Sources. Animal Behavior, 85(5).
Farsi, Maryam, Stoffle, Richard W., 2023. Artistic Creation: Intentionality and Representation in Material Agency, under revised.
Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., & Van den Bergh, B. 2010. Going Green to be Seen: Status, Reputation, and Conspicuous Conservation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(3).
Haidle, M. N. 2009. How To Think a Simple Spear. In S. A. de Beaune, F. L. Coolidge, & T. Wynn (Eds.), Cognitive Archaeology and Human Evolution (pp. 57-75).
Hadgson, D. 2009. Evolution of the Visual Cortex and Emergence of Symmetry in the Acheulean Techno-complex. Comptes Rendus Palevol, 8, 93-97.
Hecht, E. F., Gutman, D. A., Khreisheh, N., Taylor, S. V., Kilner, J., Faisal, A. A., & Stout, D. 2014. Acquisition of Paleolithic Toolmaking Abilities Involves Structural Remodeling to Inferior Frontoparietal Regions. Brain Structure and Function, 220.
Heidegger, M. 1962. Being and Time. Translated by J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson. New York: Harper & Row.
Hodder, I. 1982. Symbols in Action: Ethno-archaeological Studies of Material Culture. Cambridge University Press.
Hodder, I. 1986. Reading the Past. Cambridge University Press.
Hodder, I. 1991. Interpretative Archaeology and its Role. American Antiquity, 56, 7-12.
Hodder, I. 2012. Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Idhe, D. 1990. Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Indiana University Press.
Idhe, D. 1998. Expanding Hermeneutics: Visualism in Science. Northwestern University Press.
Iliopoulos, A. (2016). The Material Dimensions of Signification: Rethinking the Nature and Emergence of Semiosis in the Debate on Human Origins. Quaternary International, 405, Part A, 111-124.
Ingold, Tim. 2007. Lines: A Brief History, 39, Routledge.
Knappett, C. 2005. Thinking Through Material Culture: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Latour, B. 1996. Aramis, or the Love of Technology. Harvard University Press.
Latour, B. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory. Oxford University Press.
Lepre, C. L., Roche, H., Kent, D. V., Harmand, S. 2011. An Earlier Origin For the Acheulian. Nature, 477(7362), 82-85.
Lombard, M. 2016. Material Culture and the Evolution of Human Cognition. Journal of Archaeological Science.
Lombard, M. 2019. The Role of Material Culture in the Evolution of Human Cognition. In C. Smith (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer.
Lombard, M., & Gärdenfors, P. 2017. The Evolution of Causal Cognition in Humans. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 29(5).
Malafouris, L. 2008. At the Potter’s Wheel: An Argument for Material Agency, Chapter 2, In: C. Knappett, Material Agency, Springer Science Press.
Malafouris, L. 2004. The Cognitive Basis of Material Engagement: Where Brain, Body, and Culture Conflate.
Malafouris, L. 2013. How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Malafouris, L., & Renfrew, C. 2010a. An Introduction to the Cognitive Life of Things: Archaeology, Material Engagement and the Extended Mind. In L. Malafouris & C. Renfrew (Eds.), The Cognitive Life of Things: Recasting the Boundaries of the Mind. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Malafouris, L., & Renfrew, C. (Eds.). 2010b. Cognitive Life of Things: Recasting the Boundaries of the Mind. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
McCauley, B. M., Collard, M., & Sandgathe, D. 2020. A Cross-cultural Survey of On-site Fire Use by Recent Hunter-Gatherers: Implications for Research on Paleolithic Pyrotechnology. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, 3(4).
Merleau-Ponty, M. 2012. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by D. A. Landes. London: Routledge.
Overmann, K. A., & Coolidge, F. L. 2019. Squeezing Minds from Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and Evolution of the Human Mind. Oxford University Press.
Overmann, K. A., & Wynn, T. 2019. On Tools Making Minds: an Archaeological Perspective on Human Cognitive Evolution, Journal of Cognition and Culture 19, 39-58.
Renfrew, C. 1984. Towards an Archaeology of Mind: An Inaugural Lecture. Cambridge University Press.
Renfrew, C. 2004. Towards a Cognitive Archaeology. In C. Renfrew & E. B. W. Zubrow (Eds.), The Ancient Mind: Elements of Cognitive Archaeology (pp. 3-13). Cambridge University Press.
Renfrew, C. 2007. Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind. Modern Library.
Saragusti, I., Sharon, I., Katzenelson, O., & Avnir, D. 1998. Quantitive Analysis of the Symmetry of Artefacts: Lower Paleolithic Handaxes. Journal of Archaeological Science, 25, 817-825.
Searle, J. R. 1984. Minds, Brains and Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Shelton, J. T., Elliott, E. M., Hill, B. D., Galamia, M. R., & Gouvier, W. D. (2009). A Comparison of Laboratory and Clinical Working Memory Tests and Their Prediction of Fluid Intelligence. Intelligence, 37.
Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. 1992. The Psychological Foundations of Culture. The Adopted Mind: The Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, 19.
Turing, A. M. 1936. On Computable Numbers, With an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem. Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society.
Wynn, T. 1979. The Intelligence of Later Acheulean Hominids. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 14(3), 371-391.
Wynn, T. 1985. Piaget, Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Intelligence. World Archaeology, 17, 32-43.
Wynn, T. 2002. Archaeology and Cognitive Evolution. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 25.