J. David Lewis-Williams

David Pearce

An exploration of how brain structure and cultural systems developed throughout the Neolithic period 10,000 years ago explains how unique life patterns and belief systems evolved in the Near East and western Europe, revealing how neurological patterns can offer insight into developments in agriculture, religion, and art.

Consciousness, Cosmos and the Realm of the Gods

Inside the Neolithic Mind

Sam Challis

How did prehistoric peoples those living before written records think? Were their modes of thought fundamentally different from ours today? Researchers over the years have certainly believed so. Along with the Aborigines of Australia, the indigenous San people of southern Africa among the last hunter-gatherer societies on Earth became iconic representatives of all our distant ancestors, and were viewed either as irrational fantasists or childlike, highly spiritual conservationists. Since the 1960s, a new wave of research among the San and their world-famous rock art has overturned these misconceived ideas. Here, the great authority David Lewis-Williams and his colleague Sam Challis reveal how analysis of the rock paintings and engravings can be made to yield vital insights into San beliefs and ways of thought. The picture that emerges is very different from past analysis: this art is not a naïve narrative of daily life but rather is imbued with power and religious depth. As this elegantly written, enlightening book so ably demonstrates, the prehistoric mind was in fact as complex and sophisticated as that of contemporary humans.

The Mystery of San Bushman Rock Art

Deciphering Ancient Minds

The author combines a lifetime of anthropological research with the most recent neurological insights in this text. Illuminating glimpses into the ancient mind are interwoven with the self-evolving story of modern-day cave discoveries & research.

Consciousness and the Origins of Art

The Mind in the Cave

Collected articles of the world's preeminent rock art researchers and cognitive archaeologists.

Interpreting Religion and Society Through Rock Art

A Cosmos in Stone

Thomas A. Dowson

This volume brings together the work of a number of scholars in the field of rock art studies who engage the so-called trance hypothesis in terms of their own empirical data and theoretical interests.

Diversity in Southern African Rock Art Research

Contested Images

"In this unique collection of folk stories, the voices of long-dead "Bushmen," or San people, of southern Africa speak to us about their lives and beliefs. We are given glimpses into their thought-world. We listen to them recounting their poignant myths and beliefs".--BOOKJACKET.

Ancestral Folklore of the San of Southern Africa

Stories that Float from Afar

Jean Clottes

Para todo el mundo y en todas las épocas, los hombres han buscado entrar en contacto con el mundo de los espíritus por medio de los chamanes y de sus viajes durante el trance. Por este motivo, resulta legítimo tratar de decubrir estas prácticas en el arte prehistórico de las cuevas. El libro Los chamanes de la prehistoria ha marcado un hito: sin hacer del chamanismo una explicación única avanza hipótesis, presenta interesantes propuestas y permite entrever el sentido de algunas de sus obras. Acogido con pasión en Francia y en el extranjero, también ha encontrado detractores y ha generado polémicas. A estas críticas, los autores responden con precisión y planteado una importante cuestión: cómo hacer que la ciencia, con el rigor pero también con la curiosidad y la libertad de espíritu que deberían caracterizarla, permita aproximarnos lo más cerca a las motivaciones de estos artistas y al sentido de su excepcional arte.

J. David Lewis-Williams

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