The rites of spring: a cognitive analysis of ritual activity in the agricultural transition in south-west asia and north-western europe

<p>What cognitive and cultural mechanisms facilitated the agricultural transition? In this thesis, I evaluated the hypothesis that ritual action involving large groups of people meeting regularly created a significant sense of collective purpose to bring about the social cohesion necessary for...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gantley, M
Other Authors: Whitehouse, H
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
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author Gantley, M
author2 Whitehouse, H
author_facet Whitehouse, H
Gantley, M
author_sort Gantley, M
collection OXFORD
description <p>What cognitive and cultural mechanisms facilitated the agricultural transition? In this thesis, I evaluated the hypothesis that ritual action involving large groups of people meeting regularly created a significant sense of collective purpose to bring about the social cohesion necessary for agriculture. I test this hypothesis against the archaeological record in two distinct regions: south west Asia and north-western Europe. Following Whitehouse’s (2000) Modes of Religiosity theory, I show that the agricultural transition in both regions is connected with a shift from an imagistic to an increasingly doctrinal mode of religious behaviour. This result is important because it brings together insights from the prehistoric archaeology and cognitive anthropology to generate new knowledge about the agricultural transition.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:e84a90b0-5fba-4841-96af-b17c56d1ebd42022-03-27T10:45:32ZThe rites of spring: a cognitive analysis of ritual activity in the agricultural transition in south-west asia and north-western europeThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:e84a90b0-5fba-4841-96af-b17c56d1ebd4Cognitive Archaeology of the Neolithic TransitionEnglishORA Deposit2016Gantley, MWhitehouse, HBogaard, A<p>What cognitive and cultural mechanisms facilitated the agricultural transition? In this thesis, I evaluated the hypothesis that ritual action involving large groups of people meeting regularly created a significant sense of collective purpose to bring about the social cohesion necessary for agriculture. I test this hypothesis against the archaeological record in two distinct regions: south west Asia and north-western Europe. Following Whitehouse’s (2000) Modes of Religiosity theory, I show that the agricultural transition in both regions is connected with a shift from an imagistic to an increasingly doctrinal mode of religious behaviour. This result is important because it brings together insights from the prehistoric archaeology and cognitive anthropology to generate new knowledge about the agricultural transition.</p>
spellingShingle Cognitive Archaeology of the Neolithic Transition
Gantley, M
The rites of spring: a cognitive analysis of ritual activity in the agricultural transition in south-west asia and north-western europe
title The rites of spring: a cognitive analysis of ritual activity in the agricultural transition in south-west asia and north-western europe
title_full The rites of spring: a cognitive analysis of ritual activity in the agricultural transition in south-west asia and north-western europe
title_fullStr The rites of spring: a cognitive analysis of ritual activity in the agricultural transition in south-west asia and north-western europe
title_full_unstemmed The rites of spring: a cognitive analysis of ritual activity in the agricultural transition in south-west asia and north-western europe
title_short The rites of spring: a cognitive analysis of ritual activity in the agricultural transition in south-west asia and north-western europe
title_sort rites of spring a cognitive analysis of ritual activity in the agricultural transition in south west asia and north western europe
topic Cognitive Archaeology of the Neolithic Transition
work_keys_str_mv AT gantleym theritesofspringacognitiveanalysisofritualactivityintheagriculturaltransitioninsouthwestasiaandnorthwesterneurope
AT gantleym ritesofspringacognitiveanalysisofritualactivityintheagriculturaltransitioninsouthwestasiaandnorthwesterneurope