Phenomenological effects of brain function lateralisation contribute to Animism's prevailing sensory metaphor.

The structural similarity of animist ontologies across world regions hints at common underlying threads between them. This contribution examines the neurophenomenological context of animist experience, focusing on how a sense of consciousness and relationality can emerge as a primary feature of envi...

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Publicado en:Time & Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness & Culture Vol. 18; no. 1/2; pp. 23 - 43
Autor principal: Skinner, Andrew
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Mar-Jun2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Mar-Jun2025
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        188122305
        10.1080/1751696X.2025.2509736
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        atl: Phenomenological effects of brain function lateralisation contribute to Animism's prevailing sensory metaphor.
      aug:
        au: Skinner, Andrew
        affil: Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
      su:
        Consciousness
        Animism
        Cognition
        Intersubjectivity
        Geographical perception
        Brain anatomy
      sug:
        subj:
          Consciousness
          Animism
          Cognition
          Intersubjectivity
          Geographical perception
          Brain anatomy
      keyword:
        animism
        Brain lateralisation
        environmental perception
        intersubjectivity
        neurophenomenology
        animism
        Brain lateralisation
        environmental perception
        intersubjectivity
        neurophenomenology
      ab: The structural similarity of animist ontologies across world regions hints at common underlying threads between them. This contribution examines the neurophenomenological context of animist experience, focusing on how a sense of consciousness and relationality can emerge as a primary feature of environmental experience rather than an imposed interpretation. While shamanic cosmologies show clearer links to altered states of consciousness, animism's underlying basis presents a subtler challenge. This paper identifies how brain lateralisation – the specialisation of functions within and between hemispheres – contributes to sensory patterns structuring animistic perception. The brain maintains interconnected yet phenomenologically distinct modes of processing: self-referential processing (left hemisphere bias) and sociospatial cognition (right hemisphere bias). This creates distinct rhythms in environmental experience as individuals encounter the world at different scales of attention. Empirical accounts of developmental difference and neuropathology implicate specific brain structures and interactions, demonstrating how humanity's distinctively lateralised cognition manifests the world both as the subject of our observation, and as a domain populated by potential conscious observers of ourselves in turn. This perceptual potential, shaped by neural structures, interacts bidirectionally with cultural frameworks to produce diverse and yet structurally similar animistic realities.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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