Lambros Malafouris Explained

Lambros Malafouris is a Greek-British cognitive archaeologist who has pioneered the application of concepts from the philosophy of mind to the material record. He is Professor of Cognitive and Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Oxford.[1] He is known for Material Engagement Theory, the idea that material objects in the archaeological record are part of the ancient human mind.[2]

Education

Malafouris completed his doctorate in archaeology in 2005 at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Colin Renfrew.[3]

Research

Working with Renfrew, Malafouris developed an approach to the study of the human mind, past and present, known as Material Engagement Theory (MET). MET has three central tenets:

  1. Cognition is extended and enacted because material forms are part of the mind and cognition is the interaction between brains, bodies, and material forms.
  2. Materiality has agency because it is able to influence change in brains and behaviors.
  3. Meaning (signification) emerges through the active engagement of material forms.

These tenets provide an archaeological framework that "offers a new way of understanding the nature of cognition itself" and establishes "the archaeological record as an integral part of the thinking process."[4]

Important concepts developed by Malafouris include:

In 2007, Malafouris, Renfrew, and Chris Frith co-hosted the first symposium on the origins and nature of human thought at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.[11] Between 2018 and 2020, Malafouris and Thomas G. Wynn co-hosted a collaboration between the University of Oxford and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs to examine the archaeology of the Lower Paleolithic through MET; the results were published in the journal Adaptive Behavior in 2021.[12]

Honors

Malafouris was a Balzan Research Fellow in cognitive archaeology at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, from 2005 to 2008.[13] [14]

Selected works

Authored books

Edited volumes

Special journal issues

Articles

Book chapters

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Professor Lambros Malafouris . 2022 . School of Archaeology, University of Oxford . October 16, 2022.
  2. Lycett . Stephen J . 2014 . Review, How Thing Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement by Lambros Malafouris . American Antiquity . 79 . 2 . 371–372 . 10.1017/S0002731600002638 . 164300474 . October 16, 2020.
  3. Web site: Professor Lambros Malafouris . 2022 . Hertford College, University of Oxford . October 16, 2022.
  4. Wynn . Thomas . Overmann . Karenleigh A . Malafouris . Lambros . 2021 . 4E Cognition in the Lower Paleolithic: An Introduction . Adaptive Behavior . 29 . 2 . 99–106 . 10.1177/1059712320967184 . free.
  5. Book: Malafouris . Lambros . 2013 . How Thing Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement . Cambridge, MA . MIT Press . 978-0262019194.
  6. Malafouris . Lambros . 2020 . Thinking as "Thinging": Psychology With Things . Current Directions in Psychological Science . 29 . 2 . 3–8 . 10.1177/0963721419873349. 204367315 . free .
  7. Book: Stout . Dietrich . Hecht . Erin E . Human Paleoneurology . Springer Series in Bio-/Neuroinformatics . 3 . Springer . 2015 . 978-3-319-08499-2 . Bruner . Emiliano . Berlin . 145–175 . Neuroarchaeology . 10.1007/978-3-319-08500-5_7.
  8. Malafouris . Lambros . 2008 . Between brains, bodies and things: Tectonoetic awareness and the extended self . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences . 363 . 1499 . 1993–2002 . 10.1098/rstb.2008.0014 . 2606705 . 18292056.
  9. Renfrew . Colin . Malafouris . Lambros . 2008 . Steps to a 'neuroarchaeology' of mind, Part 1, Introduction . Cambridge Archaeological Journal . 18 . 3 . 381–385 . 10.1017/s0959774308000425. 231810895.
  10. Book: Malafouris, Lambros . Chiao . Joan Y . Cultural neuroscience: Cultural influences on brain function. Progress in Brain Research 178 . Amsterdam, the Netherlands . Elsevier . 2009 . 253–261 . ‘Neuroarchaeology’: Exploring the links between neural and cultural plasticity . 9780080952215.
  11. Web site: Changing Our Minds . 2007 . University of Cambridge . October 17, 2022.
  12. Wynn . Thomas . Overmann . Karenleigh A . Malafouris . Lambros . 2021 . 4E cognition in the Lower Paleolithic: An introduction . Adaptive Behavior . 29 . 2 . 99–106 . 10.1177/1059712320967184. free .
  13. Web site: Dr Lambros Malafouris . 2014 . HDC: A History of Distributed Cognition . October 17, 2022.
  14. Web site: Two Lines of Research in Prehistoric Archaeology . 2004 . Fondazione Internazionale Premio Balzan . October 17, 2022.

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