Cultivation of Perception and the Emergence of the Neolithic World

Abstract

This article develops the idea that the emergence of the Neolithic world was closely linked to discovering and becoming aware of new aspects and dimensions of reality. Practices such as pottery making and cultivation promoted attentiveness to new aspects of things and the environment, which in turn generated a new kind of lived world that was, in a sense, richer, larger and deeper than before. It is proposed that new forms of material culture and new material practices – new ways of engaging with the material world – expanded people’s horizons of perception and thinking. This cultivation of perception was an important mechanism through which new ways of life and thought associated with the Neolithic came into being.

Keywords:

• Neolithic
• materials and materiality
• perception of the environment
• pottery
• cultivation
• eastern Fennoscandia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writing of this article has been supported by two projects: ‘Copper, Material Culture and the Making of the World in Late Stone Age Finland and Russian Karelia’ funded by the University of Helsinki (2010–12) and ‘The Use of Materials and the Neolithization of North-Eastern Europe (c. 6000–1000 BC)’ funded by the Academy of Finland (2013–17, decision no. 269066).