Cognition, Symbolism and Motifs

Culture is crucial for understanding human behavior. Human behavior involves studying cognition as it encompasses the processes associated with perception, knowledge, problem solving, judgment, language, and memory. Cultural transmission allows the transfer of experiences, symbolism, and motifs. The course focuses on the ancient mind. From Paleolithic cave art to the modern mind, students will be on a journey of understanding the path to the ideational through case studies set in the past.

Skills Gained:

• An understanding of the theories behind cognition and cultural transmission
• Analyzing symbols and motifs in a structured manner from different contexts
• Learning associations between the ancient mind and material culture

Recommended For:

Sonali Gupta LL.B., Ph.D. (UCLA) specializes in Archaeology and has worked for nearly a decade in Egypt, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. She is an anthropological archaeologist and has led the first international field school in India under her project “Myth and Reality in the Himalayas.” She has taught at UCLA, the National Museum, New Delhi, and her Institute of which she is the Founding Director, the Himalayan Institute of Cultural & Heritage Studies, situated in Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh. Her core area of research is cultural transmission of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. She has various projects in collaboration with Flinders University, Institute of Field Research, University of Delhi and, the Archaeological Survey of India