On the Way Towards a Cognitive Historiography
Are we there yet?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.v1i2.25885Keywords:
historiography, cognitive scienceAbstract
The publication of the first issue of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography essentially aimed to mark the birth of a new interdisciplinary field, which is willing to take upon the challenge of exploring how people in past societies thought and behaved. Cognitive Historiography thus becomes the latest addition to a number of inter-disciplinary areas which combine a subject matter from the humanities with methods and theories from the cognitive sciences, such as Cognitive Linguistics, Cognitive Anthropology, Cognitive Archaeology, Cognitive Semiotics, and others. In what follows I offer a critical assessment of Cognitive Historiography as an emergent field, and particularly as it is represented in the inaugural issue of JCH.
References
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Scholnick, J. B., J. Munson and M. Macri. 2013. “Positioning Power in a Multi-relational Framework: A Social Network Analysis of Classic Maya Political Rhetoric”. In Network Analysis in Archaeology: New Approaches to Regional Interaction, ed. C. Knappett. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 95–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199697090.003.0005
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Slingerland, E., and M. Collard. 2012. “Creating Consilience: Toward a Second Wave”. In Creating Consilience: Integrating the Sciences and the Humanities, ed. E. Slingerland and M. Collard. New York: Oxford University Press, 3–40.
Turchin, P., and W. Scheidel. 2009. “Coin Hoards Speak of Population Declines in Ancient Rome”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(41): 17276–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0904576106
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Xygalatas, D. 2012. The Burning Saints: Cognition and Culture in the Fire-walking Rituals of the Anastenaria. London: Acumen.
Diamond, J., and J. A. Robinson. 2010. Natural Experiments of History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Eidinow, E., and L. H. Martin. 2014. “Editors’ Introduction”. Journal of Cognitive Historiography 1(1): 5–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jch.v1i1.5
Griffith, A. 2014. “Dead Religion, Live Minds: Memory and Recall of the Mithraic Bull-slaying Scene”. Journal of Cognitive Historiography 1(1): 72–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jch.v1i1.72
Henrich, J., S. J. Heine and A. Norenzayan. 2010. “The Weirdest People in the World?” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33(2-3): 61–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999152X
Lundhaug, H. 2014. “Memory and Early Monastic Literary Practices: A Cognitive Perspective”. Journal of Cognitive Historiography 1(1): 98–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jch.v1i1.98
Mellars, P. 2006. “Why Did Modern Human Populations Disperse from Africa ca. 60,000 Years Ago? A New Model”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(25): 9381–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0510792103
Munson, J. L., and M. J. Macri. 2009. “Sociopolitical Network Interactions: A Case Study of the Classic Maya”. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28(4): 424–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2009.08.002
Munson, J., M. J. Macri and M. Collard. 2014. “Classic Maya Bloodletting and the Cultural Evolution of Religious Rituals: Quantifying Patterns of Variation in Hieroglyphic Texts”. PLoS ONE 9(9): e107982. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107982
Scholnick, J. B., J. Munson and M. Macri. 2013. “Positioning Power in a Multi-relational Framework: A Social Network Analysis of Classic Maya Political Rhetoric”. In Network Analysis in Archaeology: New Approaches to Regional Interaction, ed. C. Knappett. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 95–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199697090.003.0005
Slingerland, E. 2014. “Toward a Second Wave of Consilience in the Cognitive Scientific Study of Religion”. Journal of Cognitive Historiography 1(1): 121–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jch.v1i1.121
Slingerland, E., and M. Collard. 2012. “Creating Consilience: Toward a Second Wave”. In Creating Consilience: Integrating the Sciences and the Humanities, ed. E. Slingerland and M. Collard. New York: Oxford University Press, 3–40.
Turchin, P., and W. Scheidel. 2009. “Coin Hoards Speak of Population Declines in Ancient Rome”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(41): 17276–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0904576106
Wilson, E. O. 1998. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. New York: Vintage.
Xygalatas, D. 2012. The Burning Saints: Cognition and Culture in the Fire-walking Rituals of the Anastenaria. London: Acumen.
Published
2015-04-29
Issue
Section
Commentary
How to Cite
Xygalatas, D. (2015). On the Way Towards a Cognitive Historiography: Are we there yet?. Journal of Cognitive Historiography, 1(2), 193-200. https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.v1i2.25885
