Time-consciousness—long a shared objective of philosophy and social thought—is key to understanding different cultures and their cognitive adaptation to one another. Warren D. TenHouten's remarkable book achieves this goal by providing a bold and original three-level theory of time-consciousness, its neurocognitive basis, and social organization. Using classical and contemporary ethnographies of Australian Aborigines and Euro-Australians to support his theory, TenHouten shows how involvement in hedonic sociality—emphasizing equality and community—leads to time that is cyclical, present oriented, and more generally natural; whereas agonic sociality—based on inequality and agency—leads to time that is linear, future oriented, and more generally rational.
ISBN: | 9780791464342 |
Publication date: | 1st June 2006 |
Author: | Warren D TenHouten |
Publisher: | SUNY Press an imprint of State University of New York Press |
Format: | Paperback |
Pagination: | 275 pages |
Genres: |
Sociology Social and cultural anthropology Time (chronology), time systems and standards |