InSIS Seminar Series - A Material Engagement Approach to the Study of Technological Change

Presentation abstract:
What is the relationship between technology and the mind? What is the place and meaning of technical change in human cognitive evolution? I will try to explore those questions from the perspective of material engagement theory that blends the anthropological interest in the study of materiality and technology with new theories of situated, enacted, extended and distributed cognition. My basic thesis is that we evolve by creating material things and technics which alter the ecology of our minds and shape the boundaries of our thinking.  

 

Presenter Biography:
Dr Lambros Malafouris is a Research and Teaching Fellow in Creativity, Cognition and Material Culture and Tutor in archaeology, anthropology, and human evolution at Keble. Lambros’ research interests lie in the archaeology of mind, the philosophy and semiotics of material culture, and the anthropology of the brain-artefact interface. The broad aim of his work has been to further our understanding of the constitutive intertwining of the mind with the material world by exploring the long-term implications and causal efficacy of innovation and material culture in the functional architecture and evolution of human intelligence.

Besides teaching over a broad range of archaeological and anthropological courses Lambros is also responsible for developing the Creativity research cluster at Keble.