Content deleted Content added
Citation bot (talk | contribs) m [364]Add: postscript. Tweak: doi, issue, journal. Formatted dashes. |
PhnomPencil (talk | contribs) m →Ritual and symbolic function: fixed dab link (become a part of the team as we drive this backlog to zero!) using AWB |
||
Line 12:
== Ritual and symbolic function ==
The first book-length application of biogenetic structural theory was an account of the evolution and structure of human [[ritual]]. In ''The Spectrum of Ritual'' (d'Aquili et al. 1979) the group generated a theory of ritual behavior as a mechanism by which intra- and interorganismic [[entrainment]] of [[neurocognitive]] processes are evoked, thus making concerted action among [[social animal]]s possible. The general model was used to examine formalized behavior among animals generally, then specifically among [[mammals]], [[primates]] and finally humans. They also looked at the various neurocognitive processes mediating [[arousal]], [[Affect (psychology)|affect]], physical and social [[cognition]], etc. As it has turned out, ritual has been a major focus of the group's work (see also d'Aquili 1983, d'Aquili and Laughlin 1975, Laughlin and McManus 1982, Laughlin et al. 1986, Laughlin 1988c) because of ritual's ubiquitous nature and its role in controlling cognition and experience.
Another major focus of biogenetic structural analysis has been what the group calls the ''symbolic function'' -- that is, the process by which meaning and form are integrated to become [[symbols]] in the brain (see Laughlin, McManus and Stephens 1981, Laughlin and Stephens 1980, MacDonald et al. 1988, Young- Laughlin and Laughlin 1988). The group has been particularly interested in how [[sensory]] stimuli as symbols are able to penetrate (i.e., find their way) to those neurocognitive models mediating [[meaning (semiotics)|meaning]] and [[Sign (semiotics)|signification]], and how models express themselves in symbolic action and [[cultural artifact]]s. Among other things, the biogenetic structuralists developed a theory of the evolution of the symbolic function that proceeds from primordial ''symbol'', through ''cognized SYMBOL'' systems to ''sign systems'', and finally to ''formal sign systems'', any or all of which may operate at any moment in adult human cognition (Laughlin, McManus and Stephens 1981).
| |||