Limit this search to....

Mind, Materiality and History: Explorations in Fijian Ethnography
Contributor(s): Toren, Christina (Author)
ISBN: 0415195764     ISBN-13: 9780415195768
Publisher: Routledge
OUR PRICE:   $161.50  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: July 1999
Qty:
Annotation: "Mind, Materiality and History: Explorations in Fijian Historiography" is the outcome of over a decade's research into how Fijians live their lives and constitute their knowledge of the world. Through this exploration, the author aims to derive a new theory of embodied mind that works as well for explaining ourselves as it does for explaining others. Investigating the processes by which humans interact with the material world of objects and with other people, the book addresses the issue of how we form our identities in connection with, and in contrast to, the identities of those around us. "Mind, Materiality and History" demonstrates that the human mind is "the" fundamental historical phenomenon.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies - General
- History | Historiography
Dewey: 155.82
LCCN: 99026827
Series: Material Cultures
Physical Information: 0.73" H x 6.18" W x 9.7" (1.22 lbs) 222 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Oceania
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

How do we become who we are? How is it that people are so similar in the ways they differ from one another, and so different in the ways they are the same?
Christina Toren's theory of mind as not only a physical phenomenon, but an historical one, sets out to answer these questions by examining how the material world of objects and other people informs the constitution of mind in persons over time.
This theory of embodied mind as a microhistorical process is set out in the first chapter, providing a context for the nine papers that follow. Questions explored include the way meaning-making processes reference an historically specific world and are responsible at once for continuity and change, how ritual informs children's constitution of the categories adults use to describe the world, and how people represent their relationships with one another and in so doing come to embody history.
Mind, Materiality and History has direct relevance to current debates on the nature of mind and consciousness, and demonstrates the centrality of the study of children to social analysis. It will be a valuable resource for students and scholars with an interest in anthropological theory and methodology, as well as those engaged in material culture studies.