Archaeological Evidence for Conceptual Metaphors as Enduring Knowledge Structures

Abstract

A key issue in cognitive linguistics concerns whether conceptual metaphors represent enduring knowledge structures and thus whether they comprise basic building blocks of human thought, with opinion divided over whether linguistic evidence alone can answer this question. Archaeological data in the form of rock engravings are combined with the ethnographic record from the western Great Basin of North America to resolve this problem. The evidence shows that KILLING A BIGHORN was a complex metaphor composed of two primary embodied metaphors: TRANCE IS DEATH and TRANCE IS TRANSMOGRIFICATION. Chronometric and other evidence support the conclusion that the KILLING A BIGHORN metaphor, illustrated by rock engravings, had 11,000 years of time-depth in the region, thereby demonstrating the long-term significance of conceptual metaphors to cognitive systems.

Keywords:

• conceptual metaphors
• metaphor theory
• linguistics
• Numic peoples
• rock art
• shamans
• bighorn sheep