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The Construction of Prehistoric Ideation

Exploring the Universality-Idiosyncrasy Continuum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Alexander von Gernet
Alexander von Gernet
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology Erindale CollegeUniversity of Toronto Mississauga, Ontario CanadaL5L1C6
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Extract

An understanding of prehistoric belief systems is made possible by the existence of constraints on variability in human ideation. These have generated regularities in the ethnographic record which may be located on a continuum ranging from assumed universality to virtual idiosyncrasy. While some regularities are engendered by ecological factors or psychophysiological invariants in the human species, others are clearly the result of specific culture-historical continuities. When the latter are shown to transcend significant spatiotemporal boundaries, they become useful in diminishing the uncertainty that often accompanies efforts to infer prehistoric cognition, ideation, or symbolic meanings

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Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , April 1993 , pp. 67 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1993

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