Explorations in Archaeology and Philosophy

✍ Scribed by Anton Killin (editor), Sean Allen-Hermanson (editor)

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 262
• Series: (Synthese Library, 433)
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This volume explores various themes at the intersection of archaeology and philosophy: inference and theory; interdisciplinary connections; cognition, language and normativity; and ethical issues. Showcasing this heterogeneity, its scope ranges from the method of analogical inference to the evolution of the human mind; from conceptual issues in assessing the health of past populations to the ethics of cultural heritage tourism. It probes the archaeological record for evidence of numeracy, curiosity and creativity, and social complexity. Its contributors comprise an interdisciplinary cluster of philosophers, archaeologists, anthropologists, and psychologists, from a variety of career stages, of whom many are leading experts in their fields. 

Chapter 3 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. 

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
About the Editors
Contributors
Chapter 1: The Twain Shall Meet: Themes at the Intersection of Archaeology and Philosophy
Part I: Theory and Inference
Chapter 2: “I’m Not Saying It Was Aliens”: An Archaeological and Philosophical Analysis of a Conspiracy Theory
2.1 Introduction
2.2 How the Ancient Aliens Theory Works
2.3 The Ideological Work That Ancient Aliens Theory Does
2.4 Why Ancient Aliens Theory Doesn’t Work
2.5 Conclusion
References
Chapter 3: Mortar and Pestle or Cooking Vessel? When Archaeology Makes Progress Through Failed Analogies
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Analogies, Analogical Reasoning, and Inferential Strategies
3.3 The Mortarium and the Romanization Debate
3.4 Analogies and the Interpretation of Mortaria
3.4.1 Direct Extrapolation
3.4.2 Hypothesis-Testing and Generation-for-Confirmation
3.4.3 Generation-As-Criticism
3.4.4 Summary: Success and Failure in the Interpretation of Mortaria
3.5 Optimism, Progress, and Pursuit Worthiness
3.6 Making Progress Through Failed Analogies
3.6.1 Comparative Understanding
3.6.2 The Value of Comparative Understanding in Archaeology
3.6.3 The Value of Uncertainty
3.7 Conclusion
References
Chapter 4: Scaffolding and Concept-Metaphors: Building Archaeological Knowledge in Practice
4.1 Scaffolding
4.2 Concept-Metaphors
4.3 V. Gordon Childe on Scaffolding
4.4 Concept-Metaphors as Scaffolding
4.5 Scaffolding as a Concept-Metaphor
4.6 How Entrenched Are our Scaffolds? How ‘Emptied’ Are our Concept-Metaphors?
References
Part II: Interdisciplinary Connections
Chapter 5: Human Curiosity Then and Now: The Anthropology, Archaeology, and Psychology of Patent Protections
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Human Curiosity
5.3 Patent Protections: Disputes and Justifications
5.4 Human Curiosity and Patent Protection: Some Implications
5.5 Conclusion
References
Chapter 6: Music Archaeology, Signaling Theory, Social Differentiation
6.1 Musical Technologies in Prehistory
6.2 Trace-Based Reasoning
6.3 Palaeolithic Adornment Technologies
6.4 Signaling Theory
6.5 Adornments, Music, Sociality
6.6 Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: The Archaeology and Philosophy of Health: Navigating the New Normal Problem
7.1 Introduction: The New Normal Problem
7.2 Bolstering Biomedical Naturalism Against the New Normal Problem
7.2.1 Reference Class Problems
7.2.2 Functions and Norms
7.3 Health Transitions in the Archaeological Record
7.3.1 Gross Human Transitions and Discerning Adaptive Functions
7.3.2 Recent Transitions and the Question of Culture
7.3.3 Functional Adaptation and Culture in Behavioral Modernity
7.3.3.1 Longevity
7.3.3.2 The Neolithic Transition
7.4 Conclusions and Prospects
References
Part III: Cognition, Language and Normativity
Chapter 8: Embodied and Extended Numerical Cognition
8.1 Introduction
8.1.1 Numbers in Computational Theory of Mind
8.1.2 Embodied Cognition
8.1.3 Extended Mind
8.1.4 Our Aims
8.2 Cross-Cultural and Cross-Linguistic Evidence Highlights the Embodied Bases of Numerical Cognition
8.3 Archaeological Evidence
8.3.1 The Extended Mind and Archaeological Evidence of Numerical Representation
8.3.2 Numerical Representations
8.3.3 6000-Year-Old Clay Tokens and the Mind
8.3.4 Malafouris on Numbers in the Archaeological Record
8.3.5 Hands as Technology for Counting
8.3.6 Artificial Memory Systems as Technology for Counting
8.4 Summary and Future Research Questions
References
Chapter 9: Late Pleistocene Dual Process Minds
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Dual Process Theory
9.3 ‘Capital EP’ Evolutionary Psychology
9.4 ‘Lower Case’ Evolutionary Psychology
9.5 Heyes’ Cognitive Gadgets
9.6 Conclusion
References
Chapter 10: Theory of Mind, System-2 Thinking, and the Origins of Language
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Mindreading in Great Apes and Young Humans
10.3 A ‘Two-Systems’ Account of Mindreading
10.4 System-2 Thinking and Working Memory
10.4.1 The Nature of Working Memory
10.4.2 System-2 Thinking
10.5 System-2 Mindreading Without Language
10.6 Two Hypotheses About Mindreading and Language Origins
10.7 Conclusion
References
Chapter 11: The Acheulean Origins of Normativity
11.1 Introduction
11.2 The Developmental Emergence of Normativity
11.3 Overimitation in the Acheulean
11.4 Handaxe Sub-Types
11.5 Why Normativity?
11.6 Conclusion
References
Part IV: Ethical Issues
Chapter 12: Social Archaeology as the Study of Ethical Life: Agency, Intentionality, and Responsibility
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Intentionality and Responsibility
12.2.1 Hegel’s Ethical Life and Intention
12.2.2 Action as Meaningful
12.2.3 Individuals and Collectives
12.3 Objective Mind
12.4 Normativism and Triadic Relations
12.5 What Does It Mean to Study Agency?
12.6 Concluding Remark
References
Chapter 13: Are Archaeological Parks the New Amusement Parks? UNESCO World Heritage Status and Tourism
13.1 Introduction
13.2 UNESCO World Heritage Designation and Its Relationship to Tourism
13.3 Value and Harm
13.3.1 Value
13.3.2 UNESCO-Cide and Disneyfication
13.4 Discussion of Two Examples
13.4.1 George Town
13.4.2 Angor Wat
13.4.3 Summary of Symptoms of UNESCO-Cide
13.5 Possible Solutions
13.5.1 Privatization
13.5.2 Digital Technologies
13.5.3 Revert to Local Control
13.5.4 Work with UNESCO Against UNESCO-Cide
13.6 Conclusions
References

✦ Subjects

Archaeology, Philosophy