Download or read book Darwin and Archaeology written by John P. Hart and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2002-05-30 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last decades of the 20th century witnessed strongly growing interest in evolutionary approaches to the human past. Even now, however, there is little real agreement on what evolutionary archaeology is all about. A major obstacle is the lack of consensus on how to define the basic principles of Darwinian thought in ways that are genuinely relevant to the archaeological sciences. Each chapter in this new collection of specially invited essays focuses on a single major concept and its associated key words, summarizes its historic and current uses, and then reviews case studies illustrating that concept's present and probable future role in research. What these authors say shows the richness and current diversity of thought among those today who insist that Darwinism has a key role to play in archaeology. Each chapter includes definitions of related key words. Because the same key words may have the same or different meanings in different conceptual contexts, many of these key words are addressed in more than one chapter. In addition to exploring key concepts, collectively the book's chapters show the broad range of ideas and opinions in this intellectual arena today. This volume reflects—and clarifies—debate today on the role of Darwinism in modern archaeology, and by doing so, may help shape the directions that future work in archaeology will take.
Download or read book Darwin s Legacy The Status of Evolutionary Archaeology in Argentina written by Marcelo Cardillo and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2016-01-22 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book collects the contributions to the symposium "The current state of evolutionary archeology in Argentina" that was held in Buenos Aires, for celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species"
Download or read book Rediscovering Darwin written by Geoffrey A. Clark and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Darwinian Archaeologies written by Herbert D.G. Maschner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just over 20 years ago the publication of two books indicated the reemergence of Darwinian ideas on the public stage. E. O. Wilson's Sociobiology: The New Synthesis and Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, spelt out and developed the implications of ideas that had been quietly revolutionizing biology for some time. Most controversial of all, needless to say, was the suggestion that such ideas had implications for human behavior in general and social behavior in particular. Nowhere was the outcry greater than in the field of anthropology, for anthropologists saw themselves as the witnesses and defenders of human di versity and plasticity in the face of what they regarded as a biological determin ism supporting a right-wing racist and sexist political agenda. Indeed, how could a discipline inheriting the social and cultural determinisms of Boas, Whorf, and Durkheim do anything else? Life for those who ventured to chal lenge this orthodoxy was not always easy. In the mid-l990s such views are still widely held and these two strands of anthropology have tended to go their own way, happily not talking to one another. Nevertheless, in the intervening years Darwinian ideas have gradually begun to encroach on the cultural landscape in variety of ways, and topics that had not been linked together since the mid-19th century have once again come to be seen as connected. Modern genetics turns out to be of great sig nificance in understanding the history of humanity.
Download or read book Applying Evolutionary Archaeology written by Michael J. O'Brien and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2000-03-31 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropology, and by extension archaeology, has had a long-standing interest in evolution in one or several of its various guises. Pick up any lengthy treatise on humankind written in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the chances are good that the word evolution will appear somewhere in the text. If for some reason the word itself is absent, the odds are excellent that at least the concept of change over time will have a central role in the discussion. After one of the preeminent (and often vilified) social scientists of the nineteenth century, Herbert Spencer, popularized the term in the 1850s, evolution became more or less a household word, usually being used synonymously with change, albeit change over extended periods of time. Later, through the writings of Edward Burnett Tylor, Lewis Henry Morgan, and others, the notion of evolution as it applies to stages of social and political development assumed a prominent position in anthropological disc- sions. To those with only a passing knowledge of American anthropology, it often appears that evolutionism in the early twentieth century went into a decline at the hands of Franz Boas and those of similar outlook, often termed particularists. However, it was not evolutionism that was under attack but rather comparativism— an approach that used the ethnographic present as a key to understanding how and why past peoples lived the way they did (Boas 1896).
Download or read book Darwin s Apprentice written by Janet Owen and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-03-27 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating story of Charles Darwin’s friend, fellow scientist, and champion. Sir John Lubbock was an important Darwinist, witness to an extraordinary moment in the history of science and archaeology—the emotive scientific, religious, and philosophical debate which was triggered by the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859. Darwin’s Apprentice looks at Lubbock’s critical yet often overlooked role in the Darwinian campaign, including the ways in which Lubbock’s archaeological and ethnographic collections shaped both his work and personal life. It offers an enlightening view not only of the beginnings of Darwinism, but of the scientific world of late nineteenth-century Britain.
Download or read book Evolutionary and Interpretive Archaeologies written by Ethan Cochrane and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-16 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of original articles compares various key archaeological topics—agency, violence, social groups, diffusion—from evolutionary and interpretive perspectives. These two strands represent the major current theoretical poles in the discipline. By comparing and contrasting the insights they provide into major archaeological themes, this volume demonstrates the importance of theoretical frameworks in archaeological interpretations. Chapter authors discuss relevant Darwinian or interpretive theory with short archaeological and anthropological case studies to illustrate the substantive conclusions produced. The book will advance debate and contribute to a better understanding of the goals and research strategies that comprise these distinct research traditions.
Download or read book Evolutionary Archaeology written by Michael John O'Brien and published by Foundations of Archaeological. This book was released on 1996 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Genes Memes and Human History written by Stephen Shennan and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses neo-Darwinian evolutionary ideas to explore the history of human populations and the origins of, and changes to, their cultural traditions.
Download or read book Cultural Evolution written by Alex Mesoudi and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-07-30 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Darwin changed the course of scientific thinking by showing how evolution accounts for the stunning diversity and biological complexity of life on earth. Recently, there has also been increased interest in the social sciences in how Darwinian theory can explain human culture. Covering a wide range of topics, including fads, public policy, the spread of religion, and herd behavior in markets, Alex Mesoudi shows that human culture is itself an evolutionary process that exhibits the key Darwinian mechanisms of variation, competition, and inheritance. This cross-disciplinary volume focuses on the ways cultural phenomena can be studied scientifically—from theoretical modeling to lab experiments, archaeological fieldwork to ethnographic studies—and shows how apparently disparate methods can complement one another to the mutual benefit of the various social science disciplines. Along the way, the book reveals how new insights arise from looking at culture from an evolutionary angle. Cultural Evolution provides a thought-provoking argument that Darwinian evolutionary theory can both unify different branches of inquiry and enhance understanding of human behavior.
Download or read book Style Function Transmission written by Michael John O'Brien and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Darwin's theory of evolutionary descent with modification rests in part on the notion that there is heritable continuity affected by transmission between ancestor and descendant. It is precisely this continuity that allows one to trace hylogenetic histories between fossil taxa of various ages and recent taxa. Darwin was clear that were an analyst to attempt such tracings, then the anatomical characters of choice are those least influenced by natural selection, or what are today referred to as adaptively neutral traits. The transmission of these traits is influenced solely by such mechanisms as drift and not by natural selection. The application of Darwin's theory to archaeological phenomena requires that the theory be retooled to accommodate artifacts. One aspect that has undergone this retooling concerns cultural transmission, the mechanism that affects heritable continuity between cultural phenomena. Archaeologists have long traced what is readily interpreted as heritable continuity between artifacts, but the theory underpinning their tracings is seldom explicit. Thus what have been referred to as artifacts styles underpin such tracings because styles are adaptively neutral. Other traits are referred to as functional. In their introduction to Style, Function, Transmission, Michael O'Brien and R. Lee Lyman outline in detail the interrelations of a theory of cultural descent with modification and the concepts of drift, style, and function. The chapters in the volume specifically address the issues of selection and drift and their relation to style and function. In non-polemic presentations, contributors specify empirical implications of aspects of cultural transmission for evolutionary lineages of artifacts and then present archaeological data for those implications.
Download or read book Charles Darwin s The Origin of Species written by David Amigoni and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2024-06-04 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume marks a new approach to a seminal work of the modern scientific imagination: Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species (1859). Darwin's central theory of natural selection neither originated nor could be contained, with the parameters of the natural sciences, but continues to shape and challenge our most basic assumptions about human social and political life. Several new readings, crossing the fields of history, literature, sociology, anthropology and history of science, demonstrate the complex position of the text within cultural debates past and present. Contributors examine the reception and rhetoric of the Origin and its influence on systems of classification, the nineteenth-century women's movement, literary culture (criticism and practice) and Hinduism in India. At the same time, a re-reading of Darwin and Malthus offers a constructive critique of our attempts to map the hybrid origins and influences of the text. This volume will be the ideal companion to Darwin's work for all students of literature, social and cultural history and history of science.
Download or read book Darwin s Legacy written by Sue Taylor Parker and published by AltaMira Press. This book was released on 2008-06-13 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Darwin’s Legacy: Scenarios in Human Evolution compares ideas about human evolution Darwin published in The Descent of Man in 1891 to 30 scenarios about the evolution of such unique human characteristics as bipedalism, hairless skin, secondary sex characters, language and culture that anthropologists and psychologists published between 1950 and 2006. It evaluates ideas about hunting and scavenging, aimed throwing, primitive warfare, aquatic life, courtship, and sign language in light of modern data on genetics, stone tools, fossils, and primate behavior. Parallels between Darwin’s ideas and those of modern researchers are striking.
Download or read book Darwin Archaeology written by Patricia Bourke and published by . This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume represents the first compilation of archaeological research for the Darwin region. The collection of papers in this volume focuses archaeological attention on a single region from a variety of perspectives, over a time period from 4000 years ago to the Second World War. Some papers expand upon former research on subsistence and settlement of past millennia, while others are groundbreaking in their treatment of the material remains of the very recent past. The aim is to make the results of this research accessible to the general public, as well as to archaeologists and historians.
Download or read book Archaeological Theory written by Matthew Johnson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-01-19 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeological Theory, 2nd Edition is the most current and comprehensive introduction to the field available. Thoroughly revised and updated, this engaging text offers students an ideal entry point to the major concepts and ongoing debates in archaeological research. New edition of a popular introductory text that explores the increasing diversity of approaches to archaeological theory Features more extended coverage of 'traditional' or culture-historical archaeology Examines theory across the English-speaking world and beyond Offers greatly expanded coverage of evolutionary theory, divided into sociocultural and Darwinist approaches Includes an expanded glossary, bibliography, and useful suggestions for further readings
Download or read book Replacing Darwin written by Nathaniel T Jeanson and published by New Leaf Publishing Group. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If Darwin were to examine the evidence today using modern science, would his conclusions be the same? Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, published over 150 years ago, is considered one of history’s most influential books and continues to serve as the foundation of thought for evolutionary biology. Since Darwin’s time, however, new fields of science have immerged that simply give us better answers to the question of origins. With a Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from Harvard University, Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson is uniquely qualified to investigate what genetics reveal about origins. The Origins Puzzle Comes Together If the science surrounding origins were a puzzle, Darwin would have had fewer than 15% of the pieces to work with when he developed his theory of evolution. We now have a much greater percentage of the pieces because of modern scientific research. As Dr. Jeanson puts the new pieces together, a whole new picture emerges, giving us a testable, predictive model to explain the origin of species. A New Scientific Revolution Begins Darwin’s theory of evolution may be one of science’s “sacred cows,” but genetics research is proving it wrong. Changing an entrenched narrative, even if it’s wrong, is no easy task. Replacing Darwin asks you to consider the possibility that, based on genetics research, our origins are more easily understood in the context of . . . In the beginning . . . God, with the timeline found in the biblical narrative of Genesis. There is a better answer to the origins debate than what we have been led to believe. Let the revolution begin! About the Author Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson is a scientist and a scholar, trained in one of the most prestigious universities in the world. He earned his B.S. in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and his PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University. As an undergraduate, he researched the molecular control of photosynthesis, and his graduate work involved investigating the molecular and physiological control of adult blood stem cells. His findings have been presented at regional and national conferences and have been published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Blood, Nature, and Cell. Since 2009, he has been actively researching the origin of species, both at the Institute for Creation Research and at Answers in Genesis.
Download or read book Contagious Ideas written by Ben Sandford Cullen and published by Oxbow Books Limited. This book was released on 2000 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neo-Darwinism is becoming an increasingly important influence on archaeological theory, as a number of recently edited books on `Darwinian archaeologies' make clear. However, many of these volumes are internationally inconsistent and reflect the muddled understanding many archaeologists have of the potential of Darwin's thought for interpreting material culture. Ben Cullen's book starts by critiquing some recent neo-Darwinist approaches, including cultural evolutionism and cultural sociobiology. He then presents a neo-Darwinian paradigm of extreme power, which he has termed the Cultural Virus Theory (CVT). This focuses on explaining the transmission of ideas by comparing cultural memes wit natural genes. In the final section he takes the important step of applying this theory to real materials; demonstrating how CVT can be used to understand the spread of megalithic monuments in prehistoric North-West Europe, the diffusion of the renaissance in medieval Europe and the basis of stylistic change in pottery. Tragically this collection of brilliant thoughts is published posthumously. Ben Cullen was close to finishing a major book when he died suddenly in 1995 and his writings have been gathered into a consistent whole by James Steele, Richard Cullen and Christopher Chippendale.
