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Interesting article about the conception of time

  • 14-06-2006 5:16pm
    #1
    John
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,135 ✭✭✭✭


    A South American tribe might challenge the previously held view that humans are hardwired to conceive the future as being in front of them and the past behind them.

    Link.


Comments

  • #2
    Valmont
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,857 ✭✭✭Valmont


    I think I read about that in the paper during the week.To be honest I still can't get my head round the way they think.
    It's almost incomprehensible to me to put the future behind me and the past in front, it seems contradictory! It is interesting how that pattern of thought developed and I wonder could it exist anywhere else?


  • #3
    Chakar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,033 ✭✭✭Chakar


    It would seem they think about the kill that they missed and silly things like that.For example depressed people think about the past a lot with their past mistakes.


  • #4
    Myksyk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,550 ✭✭✭Myksyk


    I'm not convinced this is represents a different conception of time necessarily, rather a different cognitive image of it in relation to where they are now. I took from it that they see the future as 'unseen', hence behind them and the past as 'having been seen' and thus in front of their eyes.


  • #5
    Victor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 78,647 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Shouldn't the thre title be "Interesting article about the concept of time". :)

    But, yes, there are different concepts of times. We westerners are obsessed with 'making time' by doing things that consume our time. In many pre-industrial civilisations time is not divided equally - "the bus will come" not "the bus will come at midday".


  • #6
    TheBaldyCoot
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9 ✭TheBaldyCoot


    “Wednesday’s meeting was moved forward two days.”

    Valmount - What do you understand by this statement.

    Moved to Friday or from Monday. If you choose Monday then you are places the future behind you and if you choose Friday you are placing the past in front of you. Whether you move time as a tangible object itself or move yourself along a timeline that is the question you must ask yourself.

    The psysiological perspective is referenced alot into the article which feeds the theory. However if they were pointing over there shoulder to the future and using a waving motion to portray the past in front of them (includ waving to indicate evidence or non evidential) then this shows a level of social activity. They dont spend much effort on the Future and so it would be physically more tiring to keep pointing over your shoulder so it was the lazymans way to gesticulate, quite simply.


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