Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

by Jordan B. Peterson

Adaptation through play and drama preceded development of linguistic thought, and provided the ground from which it emerged. Each developmental "stage"-action, imitation, play, ritual, drama, narrative, myth, religion, philosophy, rationality-offers an increasingly abstracted, generalized and detailed representation of the behavioral wisdom embedded in and established during the previous stage. The introduction of semantic representation to the human realm of behavior allowed for continuance and everincreasing extension of the cognitive process originating in action, imitation, play, and drama. Language turned drama into mythic narrative, narrative into formal religion, and religion into critical philosophy, providing for exponential expansion of adaptive ability.