Soils, stones and symbols
Subtitle: cultural perceptions of the mineral world
By: edited by Nicole Boivin & Mary Ann Owoc.
Contributors: Boivin, Nicole, Ph. D.; Owoc, Mary Ann.; European Association of Archaeologists.
Publisher: UCL; Cavendish Publishing
Published: 2004
Place of publication: London; Portland, Ore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 235
ISBN-13: 9781844720392
Subjects: Minerals -- History -- Congresses.; Minerals -- Religious aspects -- Congresses.; Minerals -- Social aspects -- Congresses.; Stone -- Religious aspects -- Congresses.; Soils -- Religious aspects -- Congresses.; Symbolic anthropology -- Congresses.; Archaeology -- Congresses.; Folklore -- Congresses.; Mineral industries, Prehistoric -- Congresses.
Genres: Congresses.
Description: "Soils, Stones and Symbols highlights studies from the fields of anthropology, archaeology and philosophy that demonstrate that not all individuals and societies view minerals as commodities to be exploited for economic gain, or as passive objects of disembodied scientific enquiry. In visiting such diverse contexts as contemporary India, colonial-period Australia and prehistoric Europe and the Americas, the papers in this volume demonstrate that in pre-industrial societies, minerals are often symbolically meaningful, ritually powerful, and deeply interwoven into not just economic and material but also social, cosmological, mythical, spiritual and philosophical aspects of life."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Held as a conference session entitled 'Soils, stones and symbols: cultural perceptions of the mineral world' at the European Association of Archaeologists meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece in 2001.
Table of contents: title: From veneration to exploitation: human engagement with the mineral world -- Nicole Boivin; title: Ochre, clay, stone and art: the symbolic importance of minerals as life-force among aboriginal peoples of northern and central Australia -- Paul SC Taçon; title: From the earth: minerals and meaning in the Hopewellian world -- Douglas K. Charles ... [et al.]; title: The mirror of the sun: surface, mineral applications and interface in California rock-art -- David Robinson; title: A phenomenology of the buried landscape: soil as material culture in the bronze age of south-west Britain -- Mary Ann Owoc; title: The cosmic earth: materiality and mineralogy in the Americas -- Nicholas J. Saunders; title: An axe to grind: symbolic considerations of stone axe use in ancient Australia -- Adam Brumm; title: Geoarchaeology and the goddess Laksmi: Rajasthani insights into geoarchaeological methods and prehistoric soil use -- Nicole Boivin; title: Choosing stones, remembering places: geology and intention in the megalithic monuments of Western Europe -- Chris Scarre; title: Reading the earth: philosophy in/of the field -- Robert Frodeman -- Epilogue:; title: Humans in a mineral world -- Mary Ann Owoc.