Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

by Jordan B. Peterson

Development of narrative means verbal abstraction of knowledge disembodied in episodic memory and embodied in behavior. It means capability to disseminate such knowledge widely and rapidly throughout a communicating population, with minimal expenditure of time and energy. Finally, it me ans intact preservation of such knowledge, simply and accurately, for generations to come. Narrative description of archetyp al behavioral patterns and representational schemas-myth--appears as an essential precondition for social construction and subsequent regulation of complexly civilized individual presumption, action and desire. It is only after behavioral (pro ce dural) wisdom has become "represented" in episodic memory and portrayed in drama and narrative that it becomes accessible to "conscious" verbal formulation and potential modification in abstraction.