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Researching the Origins of Art. Religion, and Mind

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Overview of Four Eras of Evolution
of Art, Religion, Mind and Psyche

,,,,,Oldowan

,,,,,Early Paleolithic

,,,,,Middle Paleolithic

.....Upper Paleolithic

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TWO SCHOOLS OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Processual Archaeology - Processual archaeology, formerly called The New Archaeology, was a major revival in the 1960's of the idea of archaeology as a science, stressing the scientific method and hypothesis testing to explain empirical cultural processes. Key variables for focus are evolution and cultural ecology, including such factors as climate, technological, and demographic changes.

Post-Processual Archaeology - Influenced by Post-Modernist ideas of Jacques Derrida and Michael Foucault, post-processual archaeologists focus on the role of interpretation (the 'hermeneutic circle') and critique the assumption of a value-free, neutral, empirical objectivity in making inferences about past cultures. "History is what a living society does with the past." They also focus on the role of gender-construction and social power both in the reconstruction of past societies and in the interpreters of those societies.

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