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The Origins of Monsters: Image and Cognition in the First Age of Mechanical Reproduction - Couverture rigide

Livre 1 sur 3: The Rostovtzeff Lectures

Wengrow, David

 
9780691159041: The Origins of Monsters: Image and Cognition in the First Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0691159041 ISBN 13 : 9780691159041
Editeur : Princeton University Press, 2013

Synopsis

It has often been claimed that "monsters"--supernatural creatures with bodies composed from multiple species--play a significant part in the thought and imagery of all people from all times. The Origins of Monsters advances an alternative view. Composite figurations are intriguingly rare and isolated in the art of the prehistoric era. Instead it was with the rise of cities, elites, and cosmopolitan trade networks that "monsters" became widespread features of visual production in the ancient world. Showing how these fantastic images originated and how they were transmitted, David Wengrow identifies patterns in the records of human image-making and embarks on a search for connections between mind and culture.

Wengrow asks: Can cognitive science explain the potency of such images? Does evolutionary psychology hold a key to understanding the transmission of symbols? How is our making and perception of images influenced by institutions and technologies? Wengrow considers the work of art in the first age of mechanical reproduction, which he locates in the Middle East, where urban life began. Comparing the development and spread of fantastic imagery across a range of prehistoric and ancient societies, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and China, he explores how the visual imagination has been shaped by a complex mixture of historical and universal factors.

Examining the reasons behind the dissemination of monstrous imagery in ancient states and empires, The Origins of Monsters sheds light on the relationship between culture and cognition.

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À propos de l'auteur

David Wengrow is professor of comparative archaeology at University College London. His books include The Archaeology of Early Egypt and What Makes Civilization?

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Éditeur
Princeton University Press
Date d'édition
2013
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0691159041
ISBN 13 
9780691159041
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
184
Coordonnées du fabricant
Princeton University Press
https://press.princeton.edu/books

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