Cognitive Historiography
Perception, Construal, and Context
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.23124Keywords:
time, extramission, Abhinavagupta, Marduk, meditationAbstract
The essays in this issue of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography explore a variety of developing methodologies in the field, taking us on a tour through a range of cognitive and cultural contexts in East and South Asia, the Middle East, and modern America. Although there are a number of ways to consider the goals of cognitive historiography, the essays in this issue are all engaged in a scholarly pursuit of historical minds, seeking to uncover the deep and nuanced cognitive processes at play in different historical and cultural contexts. The essays include an exploration of ancient Chinese calendrical models and the experience of time, consideration of yogic perceptions and construals of vision and spatiality, applications of the “world as theatre” metaphor of the Hindu polymath Abhinavagupta, an evaluation of the punitive and benevolent qualities of gods in ancient Mesopotamia, and using neuroscience to study the affective responses of fear and terror in Buddhist meditation.
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