Time and Society

The first general theory of time-consciousness and social experience ever developed

Time-consciousness-long a shared objective of philosophy and social thought-is key to understanding different cultures and their cognitive adaptation to one another. Warren D. TenHouten's remarkable book achieves this goal by providing a bold and original three-level theory of time-consciousness, its neurocognitive basis, and social organization. Using classical and contemporary ethnographies of Australian Aborigines and Euro-Australians to support his theory, TenHouten shows how involvement in hedonic sociality-emphasizing equality and community-leads to time that is cyclical, present oriented, and more generally natural; whereas agonic sociality-based on inequality and agency-leads to time that is linear, future oriented, and more generally rational.