Colour is largely assumed to be already in the world, a natural universal that everyone, everywhere understands. Yet cognitive scientists routinely tell us that colour is an illusion, and a private one for each of us; neither social nor material, it is held to be a product of individual brains and eyes rather than an aspect of things. This collection seeks to challenge these assumptions and examine their far-reaching consequences, arguing that colour is about practical involvement in the world, not a finalized set of theories, and getting to know colour is relative to the situation one is in – both ecologically and environmentally. Specialists from the fields of anthropology, psychology, cinematography, art history and linguistics explore the depths of colour in relation to light and movement, memory and landscape, language and narrative, in case studies with an emphasis on Australian First Peoples, but ranging as far afield as Russia and First Nations in British Columbia. What becomes apparent, is not only the complex but important role of colours in socializing the world; but also that the concept of colour only exists in some times and cultures. It should not be forgotten that the Munsell Chart, with its construction of colours as mathematical coordinates of hues, value and chroma, is not an abstraction of universals, as often claimed, but is itself a cultural artefact.

The Debate about Colour Naming in 19th Century German Philology contains eleven essays illustrating the intensity of interest in color naming and categorization that arose in nineteenth-century Germany. The themes of each chapter vary in their emphasis on particular theories that lie behind the "testing" of the color-naming capacities of "primitive people" throughout the world, and which move toward new variants of the doctrine of evolution.

This selection of work directs itself toward the growing field of psychology and the shifting ground on which it was to form the later debates about color naming and categorization. These essays are a fascinating example of the early development of the human sciences and of the interplay among natural science, social science, and ideology.

Studia Anthropologica 11

An increasing number of enthusiasts are attracted by the rich variety of rocks and minerals around us, and new ways of looking at them. In this book, Walther Cloos views the Earth as a living organism, with different kingdoms of nature -- mineral, plant and animal as stages left behind as the earth developed. He argues that everything currently inert and static was once dynamic and living. The author considers many different aspects of geology, including chapters on oil, sedimentary rocks, radioactivity, volcanoes and metals. Written over fifty years ago, this book is a classic, pioneering a scientific, geological understanding of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual insights into the evolution of the earth The previous edition of this book was published as 'The Living Earth'.