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Summary
This is the first general theory of time-consciousness and social experience ever developed.
Time-consciousness—long a shared objective of philosophy and social thought—is key to understanding different cultures and their cognitive adaptation to one another. Warren D. TenHouten's remarkable book achieves this goal by providing a bold and original three-level theory of time-consciousness, its neurocognitive basis, and social organization. Using classical and contemporary ethnographies of Australian Aborigines and Euro-Australians to support his theory, TenHouten shows how involvement in hedonic sociality—emphasizing equality and community—leads to time that is cyclical, present oriented, and more generally natural; whereas agonic sociality—based on inequality and agency—leads to time that is linear, future oriented, and more generally rational.
"There is no other work currently available that combines so many levels of analysis. TenHouten moves back and forth between neurophysiology, emotions, conceptions of time, and social relationships. There is no heavy-handed, reductionist analysis here. Instead, there is a wonderful demonstration of the emergence of the perception of time from a variety of different influences." — Michael Hammond, University of Toronto
"I am very impressed with the analyses of Aboriginal and Western time and the ways in which they are linked to religion, the nature of society, and the understanding of reality. This is a major contribution." — Lynn England, Brigham Young University
Warren D. TenHouten is Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgment
1. Introduction
2. A Case Study of the Australian Aborigines
3. Patterned-Cyclical Time Consciousness
4. Patterned-Cyclical Time Consciousness, Continued
5. Ordinary-Linear Time Consciousness
6. Patterned-Cyclical and Ordinary-Linear Time and the Two Sides of the Brain
7. Immediate-Participatory and Episodic-Futural Time and the Brain
8. The Two and the Four, and Possibly More: Social Duality and the Four Elementary Forms of Sociality
9. Natural and Rational Experiences of Time
10. Communal Sharing and Patterned-Cyclical Time Consciousness
11. Equality Matching and Immediate-Participatory Time Consciousness
12. Authority Ranking and Episodic-Futural Time Consciousness
13. Market Pricing and Ordinary-Linear Time Consciousness
14. Text and Temporality
15. An Empirical Test of the Theory
16. Discussion
Appendix
Notes
References
Name Index
Subject Index
