{"product_id":"9780811225045","title":"62: A Model Kit (New Directions Classic)","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst published in English in 1972 and long out of print, \u003cem\u003e62: A Model Kit\u003c\/em\u003e is Julio Cortázar's brilliant, intricate blueprint for life in the so-called \"City.\"\u003c\/p\u003e Here is an exhilarating intellectual performance, in the tradition of Roger Penrose's \u003cem\u003eThe Emperor's New Mind\u003c\/em\u003e and Steven Pinker's \u003cem\u003eThe Language Instinct\u003c\/em\u003e. On the way to showing how the world of our ancient ancestors shaped our modern modular mind, Steven Mithen shares one provocative insight after another as he answers a series of fascinating questions: \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eWere our brains hard-wired in the Pleistocene Era by the needs of hunter-gatherers?\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eWhen did religious beliefs first emerge?\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eWhy were the first paintings made by humankind so technically accomplished and expressive?\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eWhat can the sexual habits of chimpanzees tell us about the prehistory of the modern mind?\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e This is the first archaeological account to support the new modular concept of the mind. The concept, promulgated by cognitive and evolutionary psychologists, views the mind as a collection of specialized intelligences or \"cognitive domains,\" somewhat like a Swiss army knife with its specialized blades and tools. Arguing that only archaeology can answer many of the key questions raised by the new concept, Mithen delineates a three-phase sequence for the mind's evolution over six million years—from early Homo in Africa to the ice-age Neanderthals to our modern modular minds. Here is an intriguing and challenging explanation of what it means to be human, a bold new theory about the origins and nature of the mind.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47118513733872,"sku":"9780811225045","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780811225045_p0.jpg?v=1763747355","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780811225045","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}