Description
Book SynopsisSymbolic thought is fundamental to human existence. If social anthropology cannot explain it, what can? Alan Barnard applies ideas from social anthropology to questions being explored in archaeology, linguistics, genetics and neuroscience, considering the explosion of art, religion and language that lies at the heart of what makes us human.
Trade Review'Barnard attempts to answer the question of when and how human symbolic thought originated … The book is written in a way that should make it easily understood by nonspecialists, but it should be of value and interest to specialists as well … Recommended. All levels/libraries.' C. L. Thompson, Choice
Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Stones, bones, ochre and beads; 3. Kinship, sociality and the symbolic order; 4. Ritual and religion; 5. The flowering of language; 6. Conquering the globe; 7. After symbolic thought: the Neolithic; 8. Conclusion.
