Dear colleagues and friends,
“Changes, adaptation and development of intellectual and spiritual
expressions from the origins to present” is the topic for a
forthcoming issue of EXPRESSION quarterly journal. How does the
dynamic of change emerge from archeological living sites, cult sites,
material culture, art, myths, beliefs, and other traces of human
behavior?
The issue evolved from a letter of Francois Djinjian, President of
UISPP, asking members of the Executive Council of UISPP to be involved
in a project on "Humanity facing climate change in prehistory and
protohistory, adaptation and sustainable development: from the origins
to early historical times». Our role, as members of the CISENP
international commission, as Atelier Center for Conceptual
Anthropology, and as editors and authors of EXPRESSION quarterly
journal, is that of developing pertinent involvement in our field of
concern: the intellectual and spiritual expressions.
Climatic changes are certainly important, and recently they became
fashionable, but it would be misleading to consider them as the only
cause of cultural change. Climatic changes are only one of the factors
that influence life and development, and in many cases, they are not
even the most important ones. Migrations, changes in the geographical
location and in food resources, conflict and peaceful meetings with
other human groups, changes in the size and composition of social
units, new inventions, development of technology, local social
relations and events, discovery, conceptual elaborations, imagination,
and many other factors play their role. Man, as actor of his own
destiny is no less important than man as spectator and victim of
cultural changes.
Our task, in the CISENP International Scientific Commission, in
Atelier Research Center and in the pages of EXPRESSION journal, is not
only recording the changes, but also understanding the processes and
reasons that caused changes and development, and detect trends in
human conceptual evolution. In previous issues of EXPRESSION some
major pertinent issues were faced already, like the function of fire
in cultural evolution, the query of how an age of hunter-gatherers in
Tanzania suddenly turned into a period of vegetarian food-collectors,
or how the conceptual content of and syntactic structure rock art
changed with the introduction of the bow-and-arrow.
Do not hesitate to ask questions. Asking questions is as important as
proposing their eventual solutions. Asking question is the source of
human conceptual evolution. Proposing solutions to queries is the
source of debate and of clarification. Colleagues and friends are
invited to contribute with specific themes, sharing their experience,
knowledge and ideas. When possible, consider the dynamic relations
between cause and effect. Titles and short abstracts are welcome
before the end of 2018. Papers proposed for publication should be
submitted to this editorial office before February 10, 2019.
Please reply to:<[log in to unmask]>.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Emmanuel Anati
(Editor, EXPRESSION)

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