10000bc starts tomorrow

[GGTBod]

Just finished watching episode 2, good riddance to the fat cop what a whinging fat waste of space

 

[Palaeocory]

Hey boatman, Klint (the host from the show) is going to be teaching a course in the summer called Wild Cognition, with the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs - I wonder if your friends (or anyone else here)are interested in going to the American mid-west for three weeks in June to live in a stone age camp and learn about cognitive archaeology? The syllabus is listed here under 'courses': http://www.uccs.edu/~cca/

 

[boatman]

Cognitive archaeology is interesting but I wonder how far it can go in reconstructing patterns of thought. Experiencing a way of life can illuminate why certain things were done but cannot answer a question such as were middens constructed for the convenience and handiness of disposing of seashells and other rubbish alone or was there a taboo on littering the living area or a basic awareness of the need for basic hygiene or just that it got smelly and difficult to walk through piles of shells and grot?

Series one with its untidiness, lack of routine etc would seem not to have contributed at all to any sort of archaeology.

 

[Palaeocory]

For sure - but those would not be questions addressed by evolutionary cognitive archaeology (well... not by anyone I would endorse!). We are not looking for the content of the thought (surely lost, unless written down) but its limitations and ability... ie not what someone called something, but did they use language, and of what structure. Not what something symbolised, but if it was indeed symbolic, etc.

Season 1 did contribute to archaeology, data was being recorded and observations made... stay tuned for future papers (not on cognition mind, but experimental, from shelter efficiency to human biomechanics - we're in the writing process!).