Neurognosis, the Development of Neural Models, and the Study of the Ancient Mind

Abstract

Cognitive archaeology has made great strides over the past two decades in understanding the mind, experience, practices, and cultures of ancient peoples. Much of this development is due to theoretical orientations focused first upon sociocultural adaptation to ecological niches, and then upon the more symbolic aspects of material culture. Speculations about the universal attributes of the ancient mind may be grounded upon neuroscience and upon the concept of neurognosis, the inherited structures and processes mediating the structural properties of consciousness. The importance of simulacra is discussed relative to the evolution of iconography. Neurocognition is shown to be highly symbolic in its operations, and the symbolic brain is impelled to reify universal cosmologies that are at the core of each society's mythritual complex. It is only with an understanding of the structural foundations of human mentation that we may lay scientifically valid interpretations of ancient human cognition, imagination, activity, and culture.