Creative Cultures - Softcover

Henderson PH D, Jerry J

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1420872524 ISBN 13: 9781420872521

Publisher: Authorhouse, 2005

Synopsis

Using established concepts from history, religion, anthropology, and newly developed concepts in neurobiology and archaeology, Creative Cultures integrates these disciplines into new and unique insights that reveal five cultures, both ancient and modern, whose beliefs continue to dominant our knowledge today. This book tells the story of why these five, interconnected cultures survived and why they shape our lives. Creative Cultures examines the history and evolution of beliefs from ancient through modern cultures using a particular lens. That lens is focused by new theories of how the brain functions(neurobiology). Using these theories of how the brain forms symbols and models, the book demonstrates why ancient cultures learned only through religious and spiritual concepts, which in turn eliminated other ways to learn. The growth of learning is followed from the time humans based insights almost exclusively on anthropomorphic models through to the modern techniques of the scientific technologies used for the advancement of knowledge in modern societies today. Knowledge generated from cultures that championed creativity, not only lead to modern societies but also have individuals with considerable personal freedom. For those interested in the role creative cultures in our future, the analysis examines unique learning processes that make unconscious thoughts into conscious ones. This transformation has been continuous and is still underway.

About this title

About the Author

Jerry Henderson is an independent scholar educated and trained in the sciences who lives in Plano, Texas

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Instead of considering prehistory and history as a sequence of man-made events with special personalities driving these events, there is another way or context from which these events and people can be viewed. That is the subject of this chapter and the reason for the previous two chapters. One traditional approach treats history as a sequence of complicated, interrelated events impacted by significant individuals. An alternate way to view history is to consider knowledge as important as the individuals or the actual events that occurred. Obviously all three, the events, key individuals, and knowledge, are important and are needed to define a civilization. But the goal here is to emphasize the importance of knowledge in a culture over who did what and when. It will be shown that as knowledge in a society grows the culture is forever changed, regardless of the role people play in the events of the real-life drama that becomes a civilization.

New knowledge can cause cultural evolution. New knowledge also changes how the human mind works and what distinctions the mind makes. Those cultures that value learning make many distinctions and comparisons about events and relationships. That is the essence of learning. Knowledge is then generated from those distinctions and comparisons when they are defined in a model. The more clearly and precisely the distinctions are defined the more useful the knowledge. This process then builds more useful and detailed knowledge based on previous knowledge. Cultures relying on dreams and meditation continue to find the same knowledge found thousands of years ago. This knowledge is static in nature compared to those that question, analyze, and modify past beliefs. Anyone who studies the growth and advances made by cultures is aware that major cultural changes cause the mind to have different abilities not found before in that civilization. The evolution of world civilization consists of more than just historical events and past discoveries that mark its progression from one phase into another. Understanding how world civilization came about recognizes that events and discoveries alter both cultures and the mind. New knowledge alters the consciousness. Before a discussion of the abilities of the conscious mind and how new knowledge can change the mind, it is necessary to focus on those events and discoveries that had major, worldwide effects on cultures. Once this framework has been established, this will be used to show how consciousness has co-evolved along with all the changes in the belief systems, technologies, and institutions. These changes have altered what and how the human mind comprehends.

Edition details

• Publisher: Authorhouse
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1420872524
• ISBN 13: 9781420872521
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 364