Time and Society

by Warren D. Tenhouten

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791464334
• ISBN13: 9780791464335
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 275 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"