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7 - The Meronomic Model of Cognitive Change and Its Application to Neolithic Çatalhöyük

from Part III - Greater Innovation and Creativity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2020

By
Chris Thornton
Edited by
Ian Hodder
Ian Hodder
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
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Summary

There is a natural desire to explain the development of cognitive phenomena that seem particularly characteristic of the human mind. Creativity is a case in point, consciousness another. A recent archaeological project has attempted to understand evidence from the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in relation to the emergence of both consciousness and creativity at the dawn of settled life. This project faces the need to settle on a precise understanding of what is meant by the terms in question. But theorists differ as to what this understanding should be. And there are deeper disputes relating to cognition in general. What the term ‘cognitive’ signifies continues to be debated, with some arguing that it has no precise meaning that would differentiate it from terms such as ‘adaptive’ and ‘intelligent’.

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Consciousness, Creativity, and Self at the Dawn of Settled Life , pp. 153 - 167
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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