BOOKS et al. ANTHROPOLOGY source of flames.” (iv) “It smells bad.” (v) Sifting Myths for Truths About Our World “People stab deeper, and eventually the flame goes out.” (vi) “Inside the barrow is treasure Abigail A. Baird but no trace of a dragon’s body.” Barber and Barber offer an integrated he Indonesian island of Simeule is the unconscious passions and the conscious mind interpretation of these data points: People closest inhabited land to the epicenter (3). To this end, humans have been equipped do steal from tombs, which often do smell Tof the 26 December 2005 Sumatran with an ability, which lies somewhere between bad and contain valuable items. Because earthquake. Its inhabitants were the first to curiosity and compulsion, to discern meaning these tombs were well constructed, it was experience the full force of the in our experience. Although often the case that the gasses from the subsequent tsunami, which When They Severed this ability is largely useful, decomposing bodies were held within the killed more than 150,000 peo- Earth from Sky problems with accuracy can tombs, creating large amounts of horrible ple. Within 30 minutes of the How the Human Mind result from the fact “that our smelling, and highly flammable, methane initial seismic activity, the Shapes Myth brains are constructed to seek (or “marsh gas”). If a tomb thief has broken tsunami slammed into the out patterns so avidly that they in at night with a lantern or torch in hand, a by Elizabeth Wayland Barber island’s northern coast. Waves and Paul T. Barber will happily pounce onto sin- fire is likely to start. Stabbing at the mound, 10-m high left little behind. Yet gle cases” and give them as Beowulf did, likely further aerated the when all was said and done, Princeton University Press, causes or meanings. Barber barrow and provoked larger fiery bursts, only seven of the island’s Princeton, NJ, 2004. 310 pp. and Barber give the example of until all combustible material was gone and $29.95, £18.95. ISBN 0-691- 75,000 inhabitants had died. 09986-3. a reaction to finding a corpse the fire and dragon were no more. Through Unlike hundreds of thousands in the kitchen: spatial proxim- the authors’ framework, Beowulf’s fight of others who thought the ity may lead one to conclude with a dragon is revealed as the natural worst was over when the earthquake’s shud- therefore that the cook did it—prope hoc, ergo properties of a burial mound. dering stopped, the people of Simeule— propter hoc. The problem of accuracy also Although this account is both compelling remembering a story passed down from their arises in regard to the human quest for mean- and convincing, it also reflects the book’s grandparents—fled to higher ground, thus ing; there are few occurrences, either natural principal weakness. Throughout the text, the saving their lives. The story describes angry or otherwise, that are devoid of meaning to authors pay little attention to the human psy- gods who shake the ground and then produce human beings. For example, you might think che itself—more specifically, to the impor- giant waves called “smong.” Interestingly, that you did not get the job because it was not tance of these myths in identity and personal- this oral history is believed to result from meant to be or the tsunami was meant to reflect ity. Jerome Bruner has described myth as the accounts of an actual tsunami that struck in the gods’anger. synergistic blend of external reality and the 1907 and killed thousands of islanders. The authors’ discussion of the problems internal vicissitudes of man (4). His account It has been suggested that language- with accuracy is but one example of the way effectively emphasizes the importance of the dominated cognition among human beings that they deftly deal with human cognition in individual in both the construction and prop- enables a “mythic culture” whose primary the presence of actual events. The Barbers’ agation of myth. In addition to their value as function is to pass collective knowledge about technique, the “stripping procedure,” facili- repositories of natural history, myths also survival through a vast mythic heritage, com- tates the discernment of the true original speak to us about who we are and help us as plete with oral lore, totemic art, mimetic song, events by removing the offered explanations individuals make sense of both our external dance, and ritual (1). In When They Severed (“meaning making”) Earth from Sky, Elizabeth Wayland Barber from the story, more and Paul T. Barber effectively argue that clearly singling out the myths, while enabling survival, also serve as observations. carriers of important information about real In one of the book’s events and observations. To this end, the highlights, the authors authors (2) provide not only a compelling and unpack myths involving highly readable collection of mythic interpre- fire-breathing dragons. tations but also a framework through which to Working with the text of decode those stories and uncover seismic, Beowulf (among other geological, astrological, or other natural legends), they use their events that preceded written history. stripping procedure to Previous scholarship has described myth as interpret the myth. In the an aesthetic device for bringing the imaginary story of Beowulf, they but powerful world of preternatural forces into identify six usable obser- a manageable collaboration with the objective, vations: (i) “Someone experienced facts of life in such a way as to steals a cup from an old excite a sense of reality amenable to both the barrow” (a burial mound in the ground). (ii) “Fire erupts from the barrow The Churning of the Ocean of Milk (circa 1785, Pahari school, Kangra, The reviewer is at the Department of Psychological and spreads.” (iii) “Near and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, 6207 India). In Hindu and Buddhist mythology, the axis around which Earth Moore Hall, Hanover, NH 03755, USA. E-mail: the stone entrance, our and sky are organized is analogized as the shaft of a churn that gods

CREDIT: BINNEY 3RD COLLECTION) (EDWIN ART OF MUSEUM DIEGO SAN [email protected] hero stabs blindly at the and demons use to stir the Milky Way.

www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 308 27 MAY 2005 1261 Published by AAAS B OOKS ET AL. and internal worlds. Given these other values, ent, and new hypotheses positing defective with visual agnosia after left hemisphere dam- it is possible for myths to reveal important “monitoring” processes have been added. age: who see objects but fail to understand data about what character traits and virtues Interpreting confabulations has become more their meaning, misname them, and sometimes were desirable at different points in history. It delicate with the observation that even healthy even use them according to this false name. is clear that the framework provided by people may unknowingly confabulate. What would be a common mechanism for Barber and Barber is able to excavate natural Memory is now considered a reconstructive all forms of confabulation? Hirstein proposes facts from linguistically based myth. It would process in which memories are constantly re- that confabulations result from disinhibition have been interesting to see the same type of activated, associated, and again like that responsible for socially approach applied to social or individual encoded. In his magnificent Brain Fiction inappropriate remarks. Confab- processes. However, those questions clearly book, Daniel Schacter describes ulators would be unaware that it is Self-Deception lie beyond the scope set out by the authors, the imperfections of normal socially inappropriate to provide and the Riddle and that they were ignored detracts in no way memory as “the seven sins of false information and would fail to of Confabulation from the flow or impact of the book. memory” (3). These sins are par- notice that others disapprove of Quite simply, the Barbers’ book is for ticularly pertinent in the context by William Hirstein their false statements. Thus, their people who prefer “just because” to “just of legal testimony. MIT Press, Cambridge, common problem would be a fail- so” stories. In the tradition of books by Fabricated stories also occur MA, 2005. 301 pp. $35, ure to read the mind of others. As Merlin Donald (1) and Daniel Schacter (5), as a result of inaccurate percep- £22.95. ISBN 0-262- the author notes, this explanation When They Severed Earth from Sky provides tion. I vividly recall a patient, 08338-8. Philosophical has difficulty in accounting for the Psychopathology: an intellectually challenging and parsimo- blinded by a stroke of the back confabulations in the first place, Disorders in Mind. nious new framework. It not only sheds light part of her brain, watching emp- before listeners hear the false state- on the planet’s natural history but also offers tily into the room and compli- ments. In more general terms, he alluring insights about human cognition. menting me on my “yellow tie with pink suggests that “confabulation occurs when a spots.” I knew she was blind, and I would perceptional or mnemonic process fails and References and Notes never wear such a tie, but she was totally the failure is not detected by frontal 1. M. Donald, Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages unaware of her blindness. Similar confabula- processes.” How could this be checked? “If in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1991). tions, mostly with unawareness of deficit, you combine a representation-evaluating 2. E. W. Barber is a professor of linguistics and archaeol- also occur in other disorders of perception process with a behavior-inhibiting process, ogy at Occidental College; P. T. Barber is a research associate with the Fowler Museum of Cultural History and language (4). the combination can function as a checking at the University of California, Los Angeles. On this background—with multiple process.” The idea is reminiscent of previous 3. R. V. Chase, Quest for Myth (Louisiana State Univ. forms of confabulations emanating from monitoring hypotheses, now applied to all Press, Baton Rouge, LA, 1949). 4. J. S. Bruner, On Knowing: Essays for the Left Hand diverse lesions and reflecting failures of forms of confabulation. Unfortunately, (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1962). memory or perception—the idea of reducing Hirstein offers no suggestion of an experi- 5. D. L. Schacter, The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers (Houghton Mifflin, all confabulations to one specific mechanism mental approach to test it. Boston, 2001). appears quite unlikely. In Brain Fiction, Brain Fiction offers one of the most exten- William Hirstein, a philosophy professor at sive accounts of false memories and percep- 10.1126/science.1111126 Elmhurst College, takes a different stand: tions, although it leaves out important forms, “The apparent diversity of confabulation syn- including those occurring in healthy subjects. NEUROSCIENCE dromes invites a search for something they Hirstein proposes that one mechanism (a have in common.” mind-reading difficulty based on frontal-lobe One Cause for Working primarily with extracts from the dysfunction) accounts for all forms of confab- recent literature, Hirstein first gathers evi- ulations. It is inspiring to consider such a wide- All Confabulations? dence pinpointing the orbitofrontal cortex at ranging thought-monitoring process, but the the base of the anterior brain as the critical area book also shows to what degree current neuro- Armin Schnider for the occurrence of confabulations. This area biological evidence has to be selected and gen- ven though it is no shame to fabricate sto- has recently received much attention because eralized to maintain such a unitary concept. At ries—and some make a living doing so— damage to it may produce socially inappropri- a time when neuropsychological experimenta- Ethe term “confabulation,” which means ate behavior or flagrant confabulation. Patients tion and modern imaging technologies allow exactly this, has always had a negative conno- with acute lesions may invent stories about us to dissect cognitive processes ever more tation. It was toward the end of the 19th cen- their doings and act according to plans for the finely, some might prefer a more evidence- tury that clinicians first described the curious future that completely disregard their current driven, analytical approach to the all-inclusive, tendency of certain memory-impaired sub- brain damage, a disorder called spontaneous hypothetical one Hirstein takes. jects to make up stories about their recent confabulation (5). However, other false pro- doings (1). Some patients appeared to believe ductions from memory have no comparable References in their stories; others produced them only anatomical specificity. Hirstein extends the 1. S. S. Korsakow, Allg. Z. Psychiat. Psych. Med. 47, 390 (1892). when questioned. To some observers, the sig- thesis of a frontal origin of confabulations to 2. K. Bonhoeffer, Die Akuten Geisteskrankheiten des nificance of these stories—soon termed con- cover those emanating from false perception. Gewohnheitstrinkers: Eine Klinische Studie (Gustav fabulations—rapidly appeared obvious: the Although this idea is shared by some neurolo- Fischer, Jena, Germany, 1901). 3. D. L. Schacter, The Seven Sins of Memory; How the patients desired to fill gaps in memory (2). gists, the argument runs aground when one Mind Forgets and Remembers (Houghton Mifflin, Variants of this idea have survived to the pres- considers, for example, the confabulations of Boston, 2001). patients who have visual defects following iso- 4. O. J. Grüsser, T. Landis, Visual Agnosias and Other lated posterior brain damage. The author’s sug- Disturbances of Visual Perception and Cognition, vol. 12 in Vision and Visual Dysfunction, J. Cronly-Dillon, The reviewer is in the Division of Rehabilitation, gestion that right hemisphere damage would Ed. (Macmillan, London, 1991). Department of Clinical Neurosciences and be particularly critical for the occurrence of 5. A. Schnider, Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 4, 662 (2003). Dermatology, University Hospital, Avenue de Beau- Séjour 26, 1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland. E-mail: confabulation also holds only as long as one [email protected] forgets confabulations produced by patients 10.1126/science.1112149

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